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Estimated time of arrival after a long pause

miguelafr
over 4 years ago

I usually do hiking routes of 4-5 hours using maps (auto pause disabled), and I think the estimated time of arrival could be much more precise.

My feeling is that Garmin uses the average pace instead of the average moving pace to calculate the estimated time of arrival, because after a long pause (40 - 50 minutes with activity pause to resume later) the estimated time of arrival is much later than expected, and only in the last km shows reasonable values.

Don't you think the result would be much more accurate if the watch considered only the moving time?

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    Hard to interpret the many options of how a long route can go.  Could easily be expecting possibly additional stops, cause heck if you once an hour pause for waterfall and picnics etc... likely will continue that... or maybe not... ?!  It can only go with the assumption that maybe you will continue at the same speed/stopage rate. 

    Now... I agree, it would be closer to spot on, if it didn't include non-moving time.... but I also think it could use a sliding window of your most recent hour... or two hours... to maybe get a better indication.  BUT - again, there are a million things that can affect your total travel time on a 5hr hike/ride/run/etc once you start including stops in the time (bathroom breaks, water fill ups, swims, brewery stops, coffee...you name it!)  Just throwing a wide swath of total average speed... maybe isn't so bad really.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to NickMN

    You are right. There are a lot of factors that can be considered to estimate that time, even if there are too many remaining ascents in the route or whatever, and I know that this is just an estimation. However, after my last hiking routes I realize the algorithm used by Garmin is too simple (it seems it just consider the average time) and it could be improved a lot. It is just a comment just in case of someone from Garmin reads this and they decide to improve something ;)

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to miguelafr

    I've noticed the same when trail running (with Fenix). But it is even worse in case of trail running because the pace may vary greatly between an uphill part of a run and a downhill one. For example I may be running at a steady 8-10 min/mile pace towards the end, going downhill, but ETA would still be based on the average pace for the entire run including a slow uphill and breaks. So it may stubbornly keep telling me it will be another hour till the end of the route while in reality I know I'd finish that in 20 minutes.

    The right solution is to make the estimate based on the last 15-30 minutes of activity