Easy routing/ Auto routing

[gtstang462002]

On the advice of FishTech, I am officially requesting that Furuno implement a form of Easy routing/auto routing like what is found on the 1971F. I understand that it is a feature of the Navionics and cMap, but I am sure that the programming wizards can make this happen with the MM3 maps(and probably do it better too).

 

[Magnetron]

Perhaps, and we'll suggest it up the chain. However, between what's currently out there for an auto-routing product on the market versus a knowledgeable captain using the touch route feature -- tapping a route will be faster and likely more accurate most of the time.

Just my personal opinion,

-Maggy

 

[gtstang462002]

Here is my real-world example of an auto-routing vs manual creation:

Let's build a route from Solomons, MD to Salisbury, MD. The Wicomico river is a very winding river. This route is approximately 50nm vs 38nm in a straight line. I have built this from scratch as well as with the autorouting on the Navionics app.

I use the Navionics app just to create routes(which generally takes about 30 seconds to create), but that then requires an export to a .gpx file, that in turn needs to be imported on my TZ iBoat app on the tablet. From there, I fly over the route to make sure that the exported route is actually in navigatable waters, save the route with a proper name and wait for it to sync to my displays before departing the dock. In this example, there are 283 waypoints created to make this a smooth route going up the Wicomico river. I would say there are probably 100 waypoints that are not really needed on this auto-generated route. This entire process depending on how long it takes for the cloud to do its sync averages 7 mins. Manually creating this route took me almost 25 minutes.

If I was just navigating out of a harbor and just going straight to the fishing grounds out front and it only involves 3-10 turns, yes I agree that manual creation would be faster. At the end of the day, it is still up to the captain of the vessel to ensure that the course is in safe navigable waters.

 

[Quitsa]

That's an interesting example. The most complicated route that I use with some regularity is to get from my home port to the boat yard where I store over winter. It requires going down Vineyard Sound, through Woods Hole, and down Buzzards Bar and then winding around a small island in a marked channel with lots of turns. Altogether it takes 34 waypoints and was about 2-3 minutes to create.

During my unhappy ownership of a Garmin system, I had autorouting capability. I tried it a few times including for a long coastal voyage from Beaufort, NC to my home in Massachusetts. It was way more trouble than it was worth and did some screwy route choices. I had to spend so much time reviewing and correcting the autoroute choices that it hardly seemed worth it.

It seems to me that there is some value to plotting the route out yourself since it gives you some familiarity with the conditions you will encounter along the trip. Navigating a vessel isn't at all like using Google Maps on the road where the routing choices are constrained by the road system. On the road you don't have to decide whether to cut across a six foot deep shoal to save a mile based on the tide height and sea conditions. I don't want autorouting to decide for me that I should do it because my draft is 3.5 feet on a day with 3 foot waves and arriving at dead low tide.

I guess this is one of those things where the autoroute function is valuable to some people and useless to others so probably it should be incorporated into the software for people who want it. It reminds me of the Target mode on the radar. Although the red and green identification of targets based on collision risk is a good simple way to gain situational awareness especially for novice radar users, I much prefer the traditional radar display with the ARPA target tracking and course vector lines and proximity alarms, which puts more information on the display.

 

[buckshot]

I would like to see auto route also. It is a great tool.

 

[Johnny Electron]

I have pushed the suggestion to product development.