Tom Tom Live Traffic renewal ,

Aretnap

Have just had the renewal for Tom Tom Live traffic , has gone up from £17 to £29 which is a huge increase , not sure how they justify it , was thinking of running Waze as well and not bothering to renew . I would just use Waze , but I've got an Aussie guy on the sat nav , who's amusing ,

As above they don't have to justify it. You have choices: if you think having your satnav speak in an amusing Aussie accent is worth £29 then pay the £29, if not then use a free app instead.

But if you want to rationalise it, paid for satnavs must surely be a dying business model given that the free alternatives are so good. As more and more people do what you are thinking of and abandon their subscriptions the cost of maintaining TomTom's infrastructure will have to be spread between fewer and fewer subscribers, so naturally the subscription fees will have to go up. That or they will have to find an entirely different source of revenue, or go out of business altogether.

(As an aside, is Google Maps the best value for money product in consumer history? Completely free, and it has revolutionised the way I get about, from driving up the motorway to Ealing around foreign cities).

soolin

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82003419#Comment_82003419

An alternative route though is better that sitting for hours on a closed road (I've done 4 hours on a motorway with three young children in the back and that wasn't fun) .The only alternative to an alternative route would be not to make the journey at all, which is not helpful.

Also a good up to date system with a fast reaction time can often alter a diversion as soon as one route gets excessively better - due to long over running major road works locally I use Waze just to get out of the area as it's never the same diverted route twice in a row, Waze updates as I travel often telling me it's found an alternative route, that's exactly what i want.

flaneurs_lobster

(As an aside, is Google Maps the best value for money product in consumer history? Completely free, and it has revolutionised the way I get about, from driving up the motorway to Ealing around foreign cities).

Best value? Probably not, that would be Google Search or maybe YouTube?

All free to the consumer but that's the business model of the internet - consumer gets free access to stuff, businesses pay to get their stuff into the free thing the consumer is using.

James2k

Waze has loads of voices. I use 'noir detective' haha. It has a few Aussie ones

Frozen_up_north

One big advantage of Waze, that hasn’t been mentioned, is how responsive they are to map errors. For example I reported a speed limit that started about 200 yards before the location indicated by Waze. It was changed in a couple of weeks.

Waze also seems to learn my preferred routes, although as others found it can send you on some strange roads to shave a couple of minutes off a journey. To be fair, it’s good at avoiding awkward right turns too.

Aretnap

Best value? Probably not, that would be Google Search or maybe YouTube?

Maybe once, but Google search is borderline unusable these days. And future historians will write tomes on the role that YouTube's algorithm's habit of pushing misinformation and radicalisation on the public played in the decline and fall of Western Civilization. Google search has mostly avoided the process of enshittification, for the moment at least.

Actually, having just posted that link, Wikipedia would be a decent alternative shout.