SatNav on the dash or on the windscreen - is it safe at night or in poor visibility?

Biggles

SatNav's OK if you haven't a clue or you want an add on to your cheap TrafficMaster type unit, but if you are a Londoner with a bit of nous and a few years London motoring under your belt, I'd bet against one on most trips through town.

So, what you're saying is: If you have a thorough knowledge of the area, and you only drive through an area of which you have a thorough knowledge, you don't need a satnav?

I agree with that. It's not what they're for. I don't use a satnav to drive around our small county town because I know where I'm going. Satnavs are invaluable when you don't know how to get where you're going - as you admitted in your original post. I'm unsure now whether your gripe is against satnavs per se instead of just against how bright they are at night......

movilogo

I have a mixed feeling about sat navs. They are excellent in dictating turns and roundabouts, but somehow I can't trust them! Even I found that Google Map's route direction is often convoluted.

I prefer to select the routes always by myself, and then I want the sat nav to guide me following my own route. Unfortunately, most Sat Navs I tried, this is a very cumbersome process as I need to input millions of via options!

Badger_Lady

Biggles wrote: »

The satnav was ahead after the first stage but they then encountered slow traffic, which the cabbie decided to avoid 'on a whim' by using side streets.

... something I can do using my SatNav if I encounter slow traffic in any area I'm not used to! Just turn off the busy road, and the SatNav will recalculate and give you an alternative route.

In fact, my SatNav actually notices if I'm stuck in a queue for more than a couple of minutes and suggests that I "do a U-turn" so it can take me down a faster route.

Not so easy if you're trying to rely on maps, is it?

peterbaker

Biggles wrote: »

So, what you're saying is: If you have a thorough knowledge of the area, and you only drive through an area of which you have a thorough knowledge, you don't need a satnav?

I agree with that. It's not what they're for. I don't use a satnav to drive around our small county town because I know where I'm going. Satnavs are invaluable when you don't know how to get where you're going - as you admitted in your original post. I'm unsure now whether your gripe is against satnavs per se instead of just against how bright they are at night......

I don't really have a gripe against SatNavs, except to the extent that all that extra Chinese junk electronics sitting needlessly on so many dashboards come January, really is a fantastic lemming-like marketing phenomenum, and one that probably has had a measurable environmental impact with regard to the resources expended to make them and to transport them.

I know I am a little unusual. Very few non-taxi drivers would feel comfortable driving across London in any direction with an appointment to keep and no map (apart perhaps from one printed off the internet for the last few streets)or SatNav. But I do.

Very few would drive to Scotland without a map (apart perhaps from one printed off the internet for the last ten miles) and SatNav, but I have.

I've even driven several times to Switzerland, Germany and France on the same basis, with maybe a printout from Viamichelin.com just to make sure I don't miss out on new roads built since last time.

I am even one of those annoying people who if I can see the ground from an airliner, pretty much can identify the main roads and towns in UK and cities in Europe.

But then I did get a Grade 1 in Geography in 1972!


On the other hand I know there are people who get in a hell of a mess navigating and with a smile I am thinkng of a cousin of mine from another Continent (or planet I think) to whom I lent my Audi for a month.

To ease him into UK driving, I drove him out of central London as far as Broxbourne station. He and his mother were on their way to see my parents. They had maps which I'd marked clearly and unambiguously for the 25 minute journey that was left to their own devices.

I said goodbye, waved them out of the carpark, and then waited about 25 minutes for my train back to Liverpool Street. Once on the train I called my parents and said "They should be with you soon". I caught the underground to bank, and then the DLR out to Docklands. When I got to my destination I called again.

They still hadn't arrived :eek:

They took 2 hours in the end - apparently after stopping at a pub and asking the way, after they'd overshot by 5 miles (well thats what they said :beer: )

I think they would have found a SatNav very relaxing and even MoneySaving :money:

Anyway, as I said, I shall not be buying one for quite a while yet

PS Badger_Lady ... if I think a U turn is useful, then I am unlikely to wait until anyone or anything suggests it! I hate my wheels being stationary. I'd rather keep them rolling and discover another "short-cut" to file in the proverbial wetware for next time (even if it's a long one to be improved upon )

Badger_Lady

peterbaker wrote: »

PS Badger_Lady ... if I think a U turn is useful, then I am unlikely to wait until anyone or anything suggests it! I hate my wheels being stationary. I'd rather keep them rolling and discover another "short-cut" to file in the proverbial wetware for next time (even if it's a long one to be improved upon )

That's great for you... I didn't get a Grade 1 in Geography and I would get very lost if I started doing U-turns and going down strange roads without a clue how to get to my destination :eek:

goldspanners

im a mobile service engineer,i dont have sat nav,i drive to lots of different places every day all over scotland but i really dont feel the need fror a sat nav,everyone keeps telling me to get one,i have used one but didnt find it to be of any great use.
i do see peterbakers point,its the millions of people that travel the same route every day of life but feel the need to switch that little box on to tell them they are going the right way,it pretty pointless,my last boss done this,he drove from his house to the workshop every morning and night with the sat nav on,we used to slag him for it.
they are great if you are in a really unusual area,but even at that when you are in an unusual area take a drive around it,new places arent as scary as you may think,and in no time at all you will know the area well.if you make a wrong turn then turn around and start again.then you have the satisfaction of knowing you done it all by yourself for the next time you visit.
i personally wont be buying a sat nav until they are around the £40 mark,i can afford it but i cant really justify spending over £70 for one to myself as i have a fairly good sense of direction.

peterbaker

I just spoke with the UPS courier driver just delivering ... asked him if he used SatNav. "Nah ... no good for this job in London at any rate - doesn't update fast enough ... I use a map"

GabbaGabbaHey

peterbaker wrote:

and one that probably has had a measurable environmental impact with regard to the resources expended to make them and to transport them.

I would suggest that the savings in fuel through the users being always able to get to their destinations by the most direct route, plus their ability to navigate around traffic jams, would more than mitigate the environmental cost of the manufacture and initial transportation of the units themselves.

Not to mention increased road safety and marital harmony through a reduction in disagreements about navigation.

peterbaker

Marital harmony? Crikey never thought of that one ... my environment has actually been far more friendly since the divorce