Satellite Navigation Systems.....bad?

lilac_lady

Apart from sat navs directing a woman onto a railway line recently, (ok - maybe her fault), a report says that using one is as bad as using a mobile phone. Will they be banned?

balsingh

People need to realise that Sat Nav's should not be taken as gospel. Anyone who is silly enough to drive onto a railroad must realise that they are not obeying the rules of the road. The Sat Nav is a guide to getting you from A-B but observing the road rules is more important. I think people are getting too reliant on them and need to take a step back and realise that they can be wrong too.

moomintroll_3

balsingh wrote: »

People need to realise that Sat Nav's should not be taken as gospel. Anyone who is silly enough to drive onto a railroad must realise that they are not obeying the rules of the road. The Sat Nav is a guide to getting you from A-B but observing the road rules is more important. I think people are getting too reliant on them and need to take a step back and realise that they can be wrong too.

Agreed. I have a TomTom ONE but only use it as a guide. If it tells me to go somewhere I just can't or do something stupid I just ignore it and it recalculates the route - end of the day I know better than it does.

G

kitchpoo

After 2 days use I have returned my Garmin c510 as it wants to consistantly send me down a road that has been closed for around 50 years to through traffic, is now just footpath wide and involves an unmanned crossing where the driver has to open the gates to get over. This is regardless of what setting I put it on, it is close enough to where I live to know it is wrong but it hasnt inspired confidence in me for the real times i use it and dont know my way around.

I've had the Tom Tom One as a replacement since mid day and it appears better - and doesnt show the road in question as a through route, though it has failed to send me down a few known and legal shortcuts near home already.

anewman

Yes I have been directed by tomtom to turn right onto a dual carriageway when the sign says to go left. Common sense says to follow the road sign and not tomtom, even if tomtom will uncerimoniously prompt you to do a u-turn, even though road signs may say u-turns are prohibited.

Bernie

In the past I have own umpteen different GPS units for use with cars, cycles and walking.

Each bit of electronic GPS kit and its software has it's various strengths and weaknesses but all of them share one thing - they are dedicated computers running bespoke software that was programmed by humans! They are not infallible wonder devices. If it takes you up a stupid route - it is people that got it wrong, not the box doing what it was programmed to do.

My Garmin kit (car and handheld) are both excellent at re-calculating a route after a deviation - both share City Navigator Europe NT V9. If you turn off the calculated route, it will work out the next best route afresh. By contrast, my TomTom will stubbornly try its best to get me back to the planned route - a real pain if for example, you pulled off the the M25 to avoid a jam.

TomTom are brilliant at dealing with routine routes and itineraries. Its interface is better and its other features superior including its postcode search are far easier to use.

When travelling on business, my Ipaq PPC/Phone with TomTom and all sorts of Bluetooth accessories (earpiece, keyboard and GPS for starters) are my constant travelling companions. It's a total boon with full synch to Outlook, Ord Survey maps, Listpro, word, excel, Scrabble and oodles of other useful stuff. I never cease to be amazed at what features and capabilities can packed into these PDAs.

When travelling for pleasure, it's the Garmin that does the directing so we can bolt of down any route we want certain that we will get to our destination. For example, I've used it to cut through London several times when the M25 is reported as being blocked. We then just go from static traffic into any empty side road that look promising. I've just let the box guide me through and it's done it well. Success every time.

The handheld GPS is used for hiking, walking and cycling - and geocaching of course - and always goes on holiday with us. We can always find our hotel!

:beer:

Whits

In my job as a delivery driver, I use a TomTom in my truck.

Whilst it can be invaluable at getting me to places, it's one real drawback is that it's designed for cars not larger vehicles. Consequently, I often have to ignore it when it tries to send me down a road with a low bridge.

A program on the TV recently featured a truck driver who had contacted TomTom and asked if they would do a truck version and they said they weren't interested as there wouldn't be enough demand :rolleyes: My company uses around 500 GPS systems and we would be incredibly happy to get a truckers version :j

HeyYou

Certain groups in this country somehow expect 30million cars on limited roads with 60 million people to never meet... Unrealistic expectations I feel.

With less than 3,000 deaths per year, I feel we are pretty good, and banning things is nonsense.

anewman

Whits wrote: »

A program on the TV recently featured a truck driver who had contacted TomTom and asked if they would do a truck version and they said they weren't interested as there wouldn't be enough demand :rolleyes: My company uses around 500 GPS systems and we would be incredibly happy to get a truckers version :j

Somewhere on the internet I am sure there is a low bridges POI (possibly https://www.pocketgpsworld.co.uk if not someone there will know where), so you could check routes for low bridges before leaving. It wouldn't give the functionality you would be hoping for though.

student100

You have to check your route first and use some common sense and local knowledge. I have CoPilot sat nav software on my mobile phone/PDA. A couple of strange flaws: I live in Bristol, and it often tells me to drive partway over the Clifton Suspension Bridge and turn left onto the Portway which is some 60 odd metres below (see this picture - the Portway is the road which passes along the bottom of the gorge...).

Also between Bristol and Bath it tells me to turn left at a roundabout, travel 1.5 miles up a dual carrigeway to the next roundabout, go full circle, drive back 1.5 miles then turn left at the roundabout you were at to start with...

If you use sat nav properly it's got to be less dangerous than trying to glance down at a paper map whilst driving?

tomstickland

I use a road atlas and I enjoy navigating.

Sat nav screens can be a distraction but also can be beneficial for those who'd otherwise be looking at the map as they drive.

A friend of mine had to drive up the bank on the side of a road to avoid a car coming the other way where the driver was adjusting their radio and in the middle of the road.