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Planning a route

VERSION 0.34.2
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Requesting routes

To calculate a route from A to B, you need to provide route planning criteria. They are built using the RoutePlanningOptions struct. There are multiple optional parameters that you can use to shape the route planning criteria to fit your use cases. For a detailed description of available parameters, see the Routing API, Calculate Route documentation.

1let amsterdamCoordinate = CLLocationCoordinate2DMake(52.3764527, 4.9062047)
2let amsterdamAddress = Address(
3    streetNumber: "30",
4    streetName: "Basisweg",
5    municipality: "Amsterdam",
6    postalCode: "1043 AP",
7    country: "The Netherlands"
8)
9let amsterdamPlace = Place(coordinate: amsterdamCoordinate, name: "Amsterdam", address: amsterdamAddress)
10let berlinCoordinate = CLLocationCoordinate2DMake(52.5069751, 13.3631919)
11let berlinPlace = Place(coordinate: berlinCoordinate, name: "Berlin")
12let hagueCoordinate = CLLocationCoordinate2DMake(52.078663, 4.288788)
13let hagueAddress = Address(
14    streetNumber: "70",
15    streetName: "De Perponcherstraat",
16    municipality: "Den Haag",
17    postalCode: "2518 SW",
18    country: "The Netherlands"
19)
20let haguePlace = Place(coordinate: hagueCoordinate, name: "Den Haag", address: hagueAddress)
21

22let itinerary = Itinerary(
23    origin: ItineraryPoint(place: amsterdamPlace),
24    destination: ItineraryPoint(place: berlinPlace),
25    waypoints: [ItineraryPoint(place: haguePlace)]
26)
27

28let options: RoutePlanningOptions
29do {
30    options = try RoutePlanningOptions(
31        itinerary: itinerary,
32        costModel: CostModel(routeType: .efficient),
33        vehicle: Car()
34    )
35} catch {
36    print("Invalid planning options: \(error.localizedDescription)")
37    return
38}

Once you have a RoutePlanningOptions object, pass it to the OnlineRoutePlanner.planRoute(options:onRouteReady:completion:) method. The result of the planning is passed into the completion of the abovementioned method. The result can be either Result.success(_:) if planning succeeded, or Result.failure(_:) if planning failed.

1routePlanner.planRoute(options: options, onRouteReady: nil) { result in
2    switch result {
3    case let .success(response):
4        if (response.routes?.first) != nil {
5            // success case
6        }
7    case .failure:
8        // failure case
9        break
10    }
11}

Adjusting route planning criteria

Route types

The RouteType type specifies the kind of optimization used when calculating routes:

  • RouteType.fast - Route calculation is optimized by travel time, while keeping the routes sensible. For example, the calculation may avoid shortcuts along inconvenient side roads or long detours that only save very little time.
  • RouteType.short - Route calculation is optimized so that a good compromise between small travel time and short travel distance is achieved.
  • RouteType.efficient - Route calculation is optimized by fuel/energy consumption.
  • RouteType.thrilling(hilliness:windingness:) - Route calculation is optimized so that routes include interesting or challenging roads and use as few motorways as possible.
    • You can choose the level of turns included and also the degree of hilliness. See the hilliness and windingness parameters.
    • There is a limit of 900km on routes planned with RouteType.thrilling(hilliness:windingness:).

The default value is RouteType.fast.

Avoids

The AvoidOptions.avoids parameter specifies something that the route calculation should try to avoid when determining the route. Avoids are honored whenever a reasonable alternative is available that fulfills all avoidance criteria. If the detour becomes too large, some avoidance criteria can be violated on parts of the route. The violations can be detected by checking the corresponding route sections.

The avoid can be specified multiple times. Possible values are:

Vehicle profile

Vehicle profile relates to a set of parameters that are used to provide extra information about the vehicle specification. It also provides information about the current state, e.g., the level of fuel.

Some roads on the map have vehicle and time-dependent restrictions. For example, roads may restrict traffic to pedestrians, or can only be used by electric vehicles. Various road types may prohibit vehicles carrying hazardous materials. Tunnels may only be passable by vehicles up to a maximum height, and for trucks, with the proper tunnel code. These restrictions may affect the routes that can be planned for the user’s vehicle.

Key parameters defining vehicle profiles:

  • Vehicle type, e.g., car or motorcycle.
  • Engine type, e.g., EngineType.combustion or EngineType.electric. For pedestrians and bicycles, no engine is allowed.
  • Consumption parameters are used to adjust the overall range prediction of the vehicle.
  • Vehicle dimensions.
  • Hazardous payload describing the classification of carrying hazardous materials carried by the vehicle.
  • Tunnel codes describing which tunnels can be used.

Vehicle profile properties are valid only at the current point in time and they get updated over time, e.g., the consumption curve. The vehicle profile is also useful during free driving mode without a route, e.g., to steer range features like a 360-degree range around the current position.

Guidance Mode

RoutePlanningOptions uses the RouteInformationMode enum to specify how much guidance information (instructions and lane guidance) is returned from the RoutePlanner.planRoute(options:onRouteReady:completion:) function. The two options are RouteInformationMode.complete and RouteInformationMode.firstIncrement:

  • With RouteInformationMode.complete, the RoutePlanner.planRoute(options:onRouteReady:completion:) method returns a route with complete guidance information.
  • With RouteInformationMode.firstIncrement, RoutePlanner.planRoute(options:onRouteReady:completion:) returns a route with only the first guidance increment.

Planning errors

If any errors occurred during the planning, the result returned by the completion block will be Result.failure(_:). The error type is NSError for common errors (e.g., Networking) and RoutingError for routing-specific errors. There are a few RoutingError codes that are returned in different situations.

Incremental guidance computation

Incremental guidance computation is an optimization technique that reduces route planning time. It works by initially providing the route with a limited number of instructions and lane guidance rather than computing all instructions and lane guidance for the entire route.

The increment method requires RouteIncrementOptions. RouteIncrementOptions contains a Route, RoutePlanningOptions, and the boolean flag RoutePlanningOptions.isDepartureInstructionRequired which indicates whether to generate the first (departure) instruction.

The RouteInformationMode enum contains two cases: RouteInformationMode.complete and RouteInformationMode.firstIncrement.

The RoutePlanner.advanceGuidanceProgress(with:) method is different from RoutePlanner.planRoute(options:onRouteReady:completion:) in the following ways:

Next steps

Since you have learned how to plan a route, here are recommendations for the next steps: