A new year, a new version of TomTom's navigational software. This has been the case in the past, and this year is no exception. Because TomTom has just premièred the new TomTom GO x30 series at this year's CeBIT in Hanover (see our new post about this here), and this release included the announcement of NavCore 8. YourNAV wouldn't be yourNAV if we weren't able to inform you of all the new features this new software version will bring.

Cosmetic

The first thing we noticed about NavCore 8 are some small cosmetic changes. Unfortunately for the worse we figure, because even though the new icons seem a bit more flashy than the old ones, we can hardly say we're very enthusiastic about this overkill of the colour orange in all the menus. We probably will get used to it, but would actually not call this progress.

Advanced Lane Guidance

A very cool new addition to NavCore 8 is the implementation of the Advanced Lane Guidance feature. We already know of this feature from a few other manufacturers like Navigon, but for TomTom this is a first.

The Advanced Lane Guidance feature is very handy as a form of extra support whilst navigating through some of the more complicated situations on motorways. 800 meters before a turn/exit, a graphical static image of the situation will be shown, on which the lanes which should be taken are highlighted with bright green arrows. Above the roads, the applicable road signs are also shown. This is also the case when the normal, dynamic navigation screen is active.

We'll have to add that TomTom has made everything very attractive. The display shown is very nice, especially if there are a lot of trees or buildings in the scenery. The road signs are also adjusted to the colours of every available country. For some examples, see the photos below this article.

IQ Routes

One very important option in NavCore 8 is the use of the so-called 'IQ Routes'. This new technology uses true averages measured on the roads and is based on gathered statistical data TomTom users (anonymously) provide. When calculating routes, several figures are added into the equation, like the day of the week and the time of day. Several other potential delays are also taken into account, like the number of traffic lights, steep hills, roundabouts and speed bumps on route. The software calculates several alternative routes to be able to determine the most intelligent and effective choice.

With IQ Routes, TomTom no longer uses the maximum speed allowed on roads as the only contributing factor in determining routes. This way locations where the average speed is low (certain times of the day) are avoided more often. Plotting a route to a certain destination at the weekend can give a totally different result compared to calculating that same route in the week.

Since about 500 million new pieces of data are gathered daily by TomTom users and sent to TomTom via TomTom HOME, the IQ Routes technology is self-adapting and gets better and more refined by the day. YourNAV has had the chance to try this IQ Routes technology and we had to admit the technology calculates different routes than we see with other, non IQ-Routes devices. In the upcoming months we promise you to delve deeper into this technology and report our finding about the added value of IQ Routes in daily use.

More Map Share

In NavCore 8, the number of possible Map Share corrections has also been expanded. First now there's the 'Change Turn Restrictions'. This enables the correcting of possible errors of allowed turns. For this, a road needs to be selected, after which a simple tap on some icons can determine if the available turns are allowed to be taken or not. We don't know if this option will be used often, but it's there nonetheless.

Another new Map Share option is 'Change Road Speed', which can be used to change/add the maximum speed on certain roads. This feature will be used a lot more, no doubt. There's one caveat however: using this option is harder than it seems at first sight. Every road is divided into many parts, and for all these parts the correct (new) maximum speed needs to be entered. This does not diminish the very valuable addition of this new feature in any way though.

Other things

Apart from the 'big' innovations in NavCore 8, there are also a number of small updates.

Some (very) tiny details are the new icons for 'Mute' and 'No phone connected'; these are now a lot smaller and because of that less prominently present on the navigation screen.

Another small change, but one we're very happy with: TomTom now reports in a different way that the speed limit has been exceeded. When this happened in the last version, the digits lit up red and flashed, considerably diminishing the readability of the numbers. In this version, only the background of of the numbers is coloured red, which fixes this little problem perfectly. A change we're not happy about is in the compass preferences. For one reason or the other, TomTom decided the compass can only be turned on or off, and when it's turned on, it will always point North. Setting it to drive direction or direction of destination is no longer possible. A pity.

Availability

NavCore 8 will be available on the new GO x30 series which TomTom has announced today at CeBIT. This new range is expected in the shops by the end of April.

It's not known yet if and when NavCore 8 will become available for other TomTom devices than the GO 930, 730 and the 530. It's likely TomTom will choose, just like with NavCore 7 last year, to reserve the new version for the new devices at first, and then release updates for the 'older' devices one by one throughout the year. If/when this happens, we'll keep you in the know of course…