I?ve been thinking about getting a transportable sat nav system, so was interested when I got in a taxi this weekend and the guy had an ?O2 mobile? set up.
I was amused when the system told him to turn left into a one way street in Mossley. The wrong way.
I was less amused to watch the driver then follow the instructions, not noticing the signs. Needless to say, the manoeuvre hacked a couple of people off, but the driver seemed unfazed and continued stating ?must be a new one way, cos it?s not on the sat nav?.
Is this sort of glitch common in sat nav?
Anyone seen similar jaw-dropping behaviour from ?professional? drivers?
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I've never had mine (in-car and Road Angel Navigator) tell me to do anything illegal, but have found that a little local knowledge or experience can be more effective than a computer. For instance, last week I was "recommended" to turn left at a junction to make an 8 mile trip to a hotel which I knew was only two miles away if I was to turn right.
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There are to many people watching Sat nav screens and not the road.
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Mine has a little woman inside who tells me where to go - I don't really need to look at the screen. I think most do this nowadays.
Agree that the satnav is no substitute for local knowledge, but this weekend I was all over Hertfordshire looking for various places. I had no idea where I was going. Satnav may take you a slightly imaginative route sometimes but it'll get you there. Don't know what I'd have done without it.
On one occasion my satnav has tried to take me up a street that had recently been converted to bus/taxi only. Aside from that it seems to know where it's going. Regular map updates I guess are the key.
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Life is complex; it has real and imaginary parts.
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TomTom told me to turn right the wrong way up Lower Parlaiment Street in Nottingham on Saturday (no excuse) and has also told me to turn into a "no entry" in Edinburgh (Cones still out so understandable).
The key is to listen to the instructions and apply them in accordance with the road signs/markings. Dont blindly follow them.
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The key is to listen to the instructions and apply them in accordance with the road signs/markings. Dont blindly follow them.
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Spot on --- I don't think it's reasonable to expect any system to be 100% correct all of the time. Most of the time my Tom Tom is spot on but the good thing is that if you have to go another way (for any reason) the unit quickly recalculates and gives you fresh instructions. To me it's more about not getting lost rather than 100% accurate directions
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I've used TomTom (initially V3 now 5.1) for the past year. Absolutely great, including all the way to the Czech Republic, and as stated there is often no need to look at the screen.
I have however experienced four foibles:
1) Two roads not on the map at all even though already open for well over a year (Not on another GPS system that uses the same Teleatlas BV database either)
2) "Turn right". Where? It's a field dimwit.
3) Near Boulogne, either TomTom was having a fit despite showing a full satellite compliment or the mapping is duff, because despite having this system having a strong "snap" (keeping the pointer on the road even when the GPS says that you are to one side) the pointer kept jumping left right and centre of the road. Lasted for ten minutes. Never happened before or since.
4) In a part of Belgium I am not familiar with (I used to live in Tervuren and Sterrebeek but that was no use this time!), I happened across major roadworks. Because I was only using the 'major roads' map not a detailed map, TomTom had not a clue how to avoid the roadwords and in turn I had not the slightest clue where on the planet I was; I'd blindly turned left and right all the way from CZ without bothering to scroll my well honed mental map. Fifteen minutes later, having come off the motorway, driven up and down a local road looking at signs and town distances, I finally worked out where we were on a Michelin paper map.
Conclusion: Sat Nav is great and I wouldn't be without it but it doesn't remove the need to think or the need to know how to read a paper map. For that matter it probably doesn't remove the need to carry a paper map either if driving in an alien place.
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I've learnt not to trust my SatNav but rather use it as an aide-memoire for my pre-planned journey.
One of its habits is that it doesn't know what speed limits there are on roads, so if there is a town bypass but the original road through the town is still an A-road it will try and send you that way as it is usually the shorter option.
Another foible I found was when heading into Manchester, an area I'm not familiar at all with, the motor split into two equal sets of two lanes, and the SatNav just said "carry straight on" without reference to a road name/number, leaving me to guess which route to take. (of course I guess wrong).
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I've linked my SatNav to my cruise control and fitted a steering wheel autopilot which I removed from an aircraft which was surplus to requirements. (Concorde, I think it was called).
Anyway, I just punch in my destination and sit back and relax while the car drives itself there :-)
(Sorry - it's been a long day!)
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I have a similar thing, but call it SWMBO, it sometimes starts uttering total gibberish, but a good hard smack on the top seems to cause it to re-boot and the journey continues as normal ;o) (although inital cost is low, running costs are high)
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I use my satnav for all journeys, even to work and back. I used to think it was because if I hit an unexpected block I could press detour and avoid the problem, but in fact I know all the roads anyway locally.
So I think it's cos I can't be in the car without Rosemary telling me there's a bear on the left in half a mile or whatever. I do like the way she varies her phrases though. Sometimes it's "next right", sometimes it's "right turn ahead", etc.
I understand some people have a thing called a "radio" which performs a similar silence filling function. Or even have conversations with passengers.
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(Concorde, I think it was called).
Make sure you dont drive over bits of metal on the road.
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RF - currently 1 Renault short of a family
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I've used my sat nav in several countries on the Continent as well as the UK and it's superb. At the same time I recognise that there will be instances where the data disc, with its huge volume of data, went out of date the day after it was published owing to new roads being opened or others closed, one-way streets becoming two-way or vice versa, etc.
Every time I open my sat nav I have to click on a screen to agree basically that at all times, 'common sense has to prevail'.
Oz (as was)
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saves me hours in any given month, time equals money, an on top of that saving 20 minutes in a day means 20 minutes doing something else - somehting I enjoy doing (i.e. no work). Wouldn't be without it. BMW std kit is ok (odd wrong turn suggsted) about to buy a TomTom 500 for SWMBO's carif it gets it wrong for her I wouldn't like to be in their shoes
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