Can I train My Garmin

 

Most of the members who have been on POI Factory for a while have read this in the past.

For new members or anyone who may have missed it. Garmin says you can train your device. As for all things certain limitations are there.A reset of the GPS most likely would remove all the data it has learned.

Can I train my Garmin to provide better estimated times of arrival (ETA)?

01/24/2016
Your device can actually learn from your driving and adapt its internal database to provide better estimates of your arrival time. The device will learn from a driver’s habits and adjust the ETA accordingly. This is done by observing what speed a driver typically drives in each speed category of road and using that data to compute ETA.

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Charlie. Nuvi 265 WT and Nuvi 2597 LMT. MapFactor Navigator - Offline Maps & GPS.

Nice to know

charlesd45 wrote:

Most of the members who have been on POI Factory for a while have read this in the past.

For new members or anyone who may have missed it. Garmin says you can train your device. As for all things certain limitations are there.A reset of the GPS most likely would remove all the data it has learned.

Can I train my Garmin to provide better estimated times of arrival (ETA)?

01/24/2016
Your device can actually learn from your driving and adapt its internal database to provide better estimates of your arrival time. The device will learn from a driver’s habits and adjust the ETA accordingly. This is done by observing what speed a driver typically drives in each speed category of road and using that data to compute ETA.

Although we don't use our Garmin like we used to and I haven't done a reset (ever) I guess it will still be in there for the next longer trip. Thanks

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Mary, Nuvi 2450, Garmin Viago, Honda Navigation, Nuvi 750 (gave to son)

Lets See

I have 3 Garmins. All of them want to take me down a certain road coming off the Highway going home. That exit will take me down a busy street. It does have an alternative. The one prior is faster.
Generally 5-10 minutes faster. Any setting i use will not change anything. So here's my take. Is a garmin a he, she or an it?
I'm saying its a "she" NOT TRAINABLE grin

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2 DriveSmart 65's - We do not live in Igloo's and do not all ride to work on snow mobiles.

Garmin "learning".

This was a hot topic of discussion 7 or 8 years ago in a couple of forums including the GPSReview forum. Here is an article written in 2008 that was added as a result of that discussion: http://www.gpsreview.net/train-your-nuvi-eta/.

The main evidence that this "feature" existed in Garmin devices was provided by forum members who could demonstrate that not only the ETA, but the simulated speed on specific road segments (in simulator mode) would change after doing a system reset which removes the learned behavior.

One of the conclusions at the time is that the learned behavior affects ETA and simulated speeds, but does not affect the routing algorithm. In other words you will not get a different route after the nuvi has learned your driving behavior. (Note that this was long before Garmin introduced the MyTrends or Traffic Trends features.) As I remember there was never full agreement on this point, but I don't think anyone was ever able to demonstrate that a route was changed as a result of the learning.

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Alan - Android Auto, DriveLuxe 51LMT-S, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, Nuvi 3597LMTHD, Oregon 550T, Nuvi 855, Nuvi 755T, Lowrance Endura Sierra, Bosch Nyon

Edit

Speed2 wrote:

I have 3 Garmins. All of them want to take me down a certain road coming off the Highway going home. That exit will take me down a busy street. It does have an alternative. The one prior is faster.
Generally 5-10 minutes faster. Any setting i use will not change anything. So here's my take. Is a garmin a he, she or an it?
I'm saying its a "she" NOT TRAINABLE grin

I should have added that I always ignore the way it tells me to go and always choose the other route, it DOES NOT learn. The next trip it does it again.

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2 DriveSmart 65's - We do not live in Igloo's and do not all ride to work on snow mobiles.

Not that

It won't 'learn' routes, that FAQ talks about learning what speed you drive at.

Newer nuvis with myTrends should though learn your preferred routes

https://support.garmin.com/support/searchSupport/case.faces?...

--
Where there's a will ... there's a way ... DriveSmart51LMT-S, DriveSmart50LMT-D, Nuvi 2508LMT-D, 1490LMT, 1310, Montana 650T, Etrex 20

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sussamb wrote:

It won't 'learn' routes, that FAQ talks about learning what speed you drive at.

Newer nuvis with myTrends should though learn your preferred routes

https://support.garmin.com/support/searchSupport/case.faces?caseId=%7B06e102a0-4d56-11df-7a03-000000000000%7D

My myTrends is either really a slow learner, or dropped out of routing school altogether. I've never observed it do ANYTHING. No matter how many (many!) times I use a by-pass or short-cut route, the Garmin is oblivious every subsequent trip to the same destination.

Agreed. Does not learn routes..

As I said, from the discussion in GPS Review many years ago, the general consensus was that the "learning" only involves average speed by road classification which is used in ETA calculation but not in routing. There was a post back then (that I can no longer find) that detailed the basic Garmin routing algorithm. It showed that Garmin makes routing decisions based on road classification, but not on speed limits or on the "learned" speeds. So the routing is not changed by the learning process.

Of course, that discussion dated back to the early nuvi models that have the classic route planning engine, not the current models with Trip Planner. I suppose it is possible that the routing algorithm in the newer models has been refined. But to be honest, I don't see much difference in calculated routes between my old 755T and my 3597LMTHD.

@sussamb ... does MyTrends actually learn routes? or just destinations? It was my understanding that it learned destinations, and would automatically set a route for a destination if the criteria was met. I had MyTrends turned on for a while on my 3597, and it would select a destination on its own (which was annoying), but it never calculated the route that I actually drove every day ... it just used the standard route it always calculated which is not the way I went. I have since turned that feature off, so I don't have a lot of experience with it.

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Alan - Android Auto, DriveLuxe 51LMT-S, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, Nuvi 3597LMTHD, Oregon 550T, Nuvi 855, Nuvi 755T, Lowrance Endura Sierra, Bosch Nyon

Evidence of learning on 3790LMT

If you compare two samples of the identical model, which differ in the experience they have been exposed to--for example by two drivers in the same family, you may see evidence of learning, and for specific types of learning.

In my case we have two 3790LMT units. One lives in my wife's car, and one in mine. The particular trips we take are systematically different. Probably our driving behavior has differences as well. In their current state (after a couple of years of use) the two units display a significantly different ETA for the same destination from the same starting point by the same route. I'd call this evidence of speed learning.

My personal observation is that around town in Albuquerque, my unit gives me ETA which is often very close to right, and it is not systematically always wrong in the same direction. This was not true of my 855. I consider this indirect evidence of successful speed learning--though whether the corrections are more for me as a driver, or more for the types of routes and the real traffic on the places I happen to go in Albuquerque is not readily resolved.

As to route learning, I have seen two pretty clear instances in which the standard routing did not include a "short-cut" which I preferred to take, for which after an appreciable number of repetitions, the suggested routing suddenly adopted my preference. This route learning seemed somewhat fragile (i.e. it forgot after a while, not for clear reasons I could confidently assert).

I've seen a hint that the speed learning might be in some cases route specific and not just category of road. For an hour or two or trip home by a route with negligible choice largely on one Interstate, I've seen the ETA change on recalculation by as much as five minutes. My inference is that one of the two calculations had route-specific speed learning applied, while the other was just using the generic learned adjustments by road category.

Proving a negative is tough. Lack of evidence of desired learning in a specific case is not much evidence that there is no learning in general.

--
personal GPS user since 1992

Me too

Mine is turned off also so I have no experience but others have said it learns routes that they drive. Part of the problem with it seems to be that together with TrafficTrends you tend to get routes that aren't ideal.

Here in the UK now we have very good digital traffic so I rely on that to help me in my route decision making smile

--
Where there's a will ... there's a way ... DriveSmart51LMT-S, DriveSmart50LMT-D, Nuvi 2508LMT-D, 1490LMT, 1310, Montana 650T, Etrex 20

Route learning

archae86 wrote:

As to route learning, I have seen two pretty clear instances in which the standard routing did not include a "short-cut" which I preferred to take, for which after an appreciable number of repetitions, the suggested routing suddenly adopted my preference. This route learning seemed somewhat fragile (i.e. it forgot after a while, not for clear reasons I could confidently assert).

I haven't researched it as well as you, but I do agree that I think the Garmin models with myTrends (and myTrends enabled) will eventually learn your route.

Garmin does point out that myTrends only learns when a route is being run, so travel without a route and destination won't add to its learning. It also seems to me that to learn a specific preferred route, the nuvi requires quite a bit of training.

I'm pretty sure that a hard reset will wipe out the myTrends data and also think that a map update might reset it as well.

myTrends is not the most useful feature but it doesn't bother me so I keep it enabled on my 3597.

You have to throw Traffic

You have to throw Traffic trends into the mix also as far as routing.

The trafficTrends feature improves recommended routes on Garmin devices by referencing trends in traffic flow. This helps to provide more accurate time of arrival expectations as well as alternative routes to the destination depending on the time of day and the day of the week.

Garmin has managed to improve this feature by constantly collecting historical traffic data which is delivered to the device via map updates.

Examples of how this feature works can be seen in the below screenshots. The picture on the left is a route provided to the user at 2pm on a Thursday. The image on the right is on the same day but at 5pm when traffic is more prevalent on the route. In this case, the user is provided with a different route based on historical traffic in that area. See for screen shots https://support.garmin.com/support/searchSupport/case.faces?...

With all this going on I find it hard to reach a definite conclusion about routing.

--
Charlie. Nuvi 265 WT and Nuvi 2597 LMT. MapFactor Navigator - Offline Maps & GPS.

just simple destination

CraigW wrote:

Garmin does point out that myTrends only learns when a route is being run, so travel without a route and destination won't add to its learning. It also seems to me that to learn a specific preferred route, the nuvi requires quite a bit of training.

Just for clarification, are you meaning "route" in the general sense that the Garmin unit is directing you, instead of just showing where you are? If so, I agree. If, however, you specifically mean the potentially multipoint routes, that is a feature I scarcely ever use on my Garmins, and for sure it played no role in the two instances I cited.

--
personal GPS user since 1992

Yes

archae86 wrote:
CraigW wrote:

Garmin does point out that myTrends only learns when a route is being run, so travel without a route and destination won't add to its learning. It also seems to me that to learn a specific preferred route, the nuvi requires quite a bit of training.

Just for clarification, are you meaning "route" in the general sense that the Garmin unit is directing you, instead of just showing where you are?

Yes, just a pink line to a destination.

My experience

My experience with my 3597 is different from those already given. It has learned to predict a probable destination based on the time of day as well as modifying a route from what was originally suggested.

Since moving to the mountains of North Carolina ths summer, the unit has learned I meet with a group one day a week for breakfast. The original route had me going one exit further on the route than I started taking a couple months ago. It has now learned to use that route, but it has taken a couple months to learn my preference. If I head out from home at a later time, it will suggest one of my other common destinations. Both trips follow the same roads for about 8 miles so it does know the time and works with that. The arrival times are usually pretty close to what it would be using just the clock based on starting time and the average number of minutes to reach those destinations.

--
Illiterate? Write for free help.

Trainable

Speed2 wrote:

I have 3 Garmins. All of them want to take me down a certain road coming off the Highway going home. That exit will take me down a busy street. It does have an alternative. The one prior is faster.
Generally 5-10 minutes faster. Any setting i use will not change anything. So here's my take. Is a garmin a he, she or an it?
I'm saying its a "she" NOT TRAINABLE grin

My other half would say that *I* am not trainable, but that's a different thread. smile

.

Box Car wrote:

My experience with my 3597 is different from those already given. It has learned to predict a probable destination based on the time of day as well as modifying a route from what was originally suggested.

Since moving to the mountains of North Carolina ths summer, the unit has learned I meet with a group one day a week for breakfast. The original route had me going one exit further on the route than I started taking a couple months ago. It has now learned to use that route, but it has taken a couple months to learn my preference. If I head out from home at a later time, it will suggest one of my other common destinations. Both trips follow the same roads for about 8 miles so it does know the time and works with that. The arrival times are usually pretty close to what it would be using just the clock based on starting time and the average number of minutes to reach those destinations.

Interesting. Thanks for posting.

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My Nuvi goes the route after I drive it a few tImes