Frequent false "Off-route" notifications

sky-runner

I am posting this in the Vertical 2 section of the forum, but this should apply to many other watches.

I think that the current implementation of “off-route” detection is overly sensitive. This results in “off-route” alerts (that are shortly followed by “back on route”) that are so frequent that I basically stopped paying attention to them, fully expecting them to be false positives.

Typically I am right on the correct trail when the off-route notification goes on. What the current off-route detection mechanism doesn’t seem consider is that:
a) The map may not be entirely accurate, which seems to be sufficient to trigger this alert from time to time
b) The GPX route may not follow the trail accurately because it was created from another activity recorded with a poor GPS accuracy, for example an activity that was possibly recorded with a less accurate older generation watch.

It is unreasonable to expect GPX routes to follow the actual trails precisely. Perhaps it is reasonable to expect that in a city, but certainly not in wilderness.

To give you an example, last weekend I’ve run a mountain 50K race and have followed an officially provided GPX route on my Vertical 2. I am certain that I never diverged from the race course, and yet I had the off-route notifications probably a dozen times. Comparing the route and what I actually ran, there were some tiny differences in some places and no observable differences in other places, but none of them seemed significant enough to trigger an alert.

In my opinion, this isn’t working as it should. All it achieves is that it teaches me to ignore off-route alerts. And then there may be a genuine off-route situation that I would ignore thinking it is yet another false positive, as many before, which would result in me going a wrong way. True story! That has already happened to me once.

elbee

I use navigation to follow a gpx a lot on my race s, but I don’t recognize the behavior you describe.

sky-runner

@elbee What kind of terrain you use navigation on? What I am describing is a behavior on twisty mountain trails. I don’t get this on every run, but often enough to definitely notice this issue. Prior to the previous software update, when the “improved” off-route detection was introduced, that hardly ever happened.

elbee

@sky-runner

I had no problem on twisting Belgium trails, nor in the French or German mountains.
It usually takes distance before I get an of course alert (something between 50 and 100 meters, I guess)

Stefano M64

maybe you changed to a battery mode with a lower GPS accuracy?

maszop

@sky-runner Those are probably two separate issues.

For many years now, when strictly following a route, these ‘off‑route’ messages pop up – and then shortly after, a message saying you’re back on track.

And now (probably since the start of this year), the distance from the route at which the watch considers you off‑route has been significantly reduced (40m/20m).

snow*

@sky-runner said:

I am posting this in the Vertical 2 section of the forum, but this should apply to many other watches.

Suunto Race S here

@sky-runner said:

What I am describing is a behavior on twisty mountain trails

It’s happened a couple of times before, in exactly the same situation. GPX were created using Komoot.

elbee

@snow said:

GPX were created using Komoot.

In komoot, when importing a gpx, there are 2 options: let komoot snap it to known paths or import as is.

I always use the as is option, but even then the gpx that ends up on my watch is changed. (I compare the route on my wife’s apple watch who uses the source on wikilocs and the route on my watch that is downloaded, imported in komoot, synced to suunto and then loaded on my watch)

snow*

@elbee said:

let komoot snap it to known paths

I usually go for this one and tbh, I’ve never really paid much attention to any differences between the two, but I’ll keep an eye out for them next time. Thanks for pointing that out.