Base Camp v Garmin v Google Yikes!

[Roberto Gonzales]

Can someone tell me if it is normal to get this much of a discrepancy between the time predictions for these three platforms?

I'm looking at about 450 miles of back roads and when I put the waypoints into Base Camp, it says 10 hours and 30 minutes. When I transfer the route over to Garmin (Zumo...3 something? not the bigger one) it says 8 hours and 30 minutes! Then when I plug everything into Google Maps, it says 9 hours and 15 minutes! That's a hell of a standard error of the measure! I understand that time of day/traffic will play a huge role, but jeeze! Which one is most likely giving best estimate in y'alls experience?

 

[Ledwardio]

Yeah, fairly normal.

The Garmin should be most accurate as it learns the speeds that you actually travel on certain types of roads and bases its times on that, though it doesn't add anything for the complexity of the road or traffic, so can be a bit on the ambitious side.

I'm surprised that Basecamp is so high - you may want to look at what settings and avoidances are being used. You can tweak the speeds that Basecamp uses for certain types of roads, once you've done this trip I'd consider going back into Basecamp and adjust them so they are closer to your timings, then in theory next time you use it the time estimates should be more realistic - the more you do that the better it will be.

Google can be fairly conservative so I'm not surprised it's higher than the Garmin.

My estimate for your trip is 8 hours 48 minutes - do I win anything if I'm right?

 

[Roberto Gonzales]

Yeah, fairly normal.

The Garmin should be most accurate as it learns the speeds that you actually travel on certain types of roads and bases its times on that, though it doesn't add anything for the complexity of the road or traffic, so can be a bit on the ambitious side.

I'm surprised that Basecamp is so high - you may want to look at what settings and avoidances are being used. You can tweak the speeds that Basecamp uses for certain types of roads, once you've done this trip I'd consider going back into Basecamp and adjust them so they are closer to your timings, then in theory next time you use it the time estimates should be more realistic - the more you do that the better it will be.

Google can be fairly conservative so I'm not surprised it's higher than the Garmin.

My estimate for your trip is 8 hours 48 minutes - do I win anything if I'm right?

Thanks.
I'll let you know what happens!
And, you have my sincere appreciation for responding, right or not <g>.

 

[kwthom]

FYI...Google Maps will calculate based on traffic & road conditions at that moment in time.

Thus, if you made that calculation at (local) rush-hour, that time is included in their computation.

Having stated that, I did find that - backing in typical times for bio breaks, fuel stops, and the like, Google Map estimates are usually pretty close for the typical riding pace I find myself doing on various cert rides.

 

[RFlagg42]

The Garmin should be most accurate as it learns the speeds that you actually travel on certain types of roads and bases its times on that, though it doesn't add anything for the complexity of the road or traffic, so can be a bit on the ambitious.

not all Garmins "learn" from the speeds you drive. Some do.

If traffic is not a significant issue at the time, I do think Garmins give better ETAs. If traffic is a significant variable, I find that Google gives better ETAs as it has a good idea of "average" traffic flow at various times throughout the day as well as significant construction, accidents, traffic jams etc...

You have no excuse with basecamp as you can change the speeds it uses to calculate ETAs.

 

[Roberto Gonzales]

not all Garmins "learn" from the speeds you drive. Some do.

If traffic is not a significant issue at the time, I do think Garmins give better ETAs. If traffic is a significant variable, I find that Google gives better ETAs as it has a good idea of "average" traffic flow at various times throughout the day as well as significant construction, accidents, traffic jams etc...

You have no excuse with basecamp as you can change the speeds it uses to calculate ETAs.

Wait! I can change the way basecamp estimates arrival time? I had no idea!
Garmin turned out to be pretty good, google maps was "too conservative," and basecamp, the way it is currently, was way way off!

 

[BMW RT Pilot]

Can someone tell me if it is normal to get this much of a discrepancy between the time predictions for these three platforms?

Since you now know about how to adjust Base Camp's average speeds and how Google Maps/GPS can use current traffic data to get you a more accurate estimate, I wonder if you also plan your fuel stops ahead of time?

When I am planning a ride, I preplan all of my fuel stops and I set a 20-minute layover time for each of them. When the route gets transferred over to the GPS, I get a super-accurate estimate of the time needed to complete the ride.

Another helpful hint is to set an arrival time on one of your points in the GPS and by doing so, the GPS will tell you exactly when you need to leave your starting point. For example, let's say that there is a museum in NOLA that I want to be at 1pm. It's the third stop on my trip. I go into the GPS and set the arrival time to the correct date and time and the GPS will tell me when to leave my starting point while factoring in the layovers at my previous stops.

Knowing all of this becomes super useful when dealing with long trips in multiple time zones when under a deadline. And you can make a game out of taking less time at your stops and maybe increasing your speed just a bit to whittle your arrival time down.