Epic satnav fail

[forddeliveryboy]

Maps can't do traffic. Maps can't send me the back roads if some Lithuanian geezer has flipped his load of toilet rolls on the M5.

However, as a geek I still love paper maps. I don't find them useful for driving, but I'll happily "read" a road atlas even if I'm not going anywhere soon.

 

If I had a sufficiently posh sat nav which warned me in advance of a pile-up or jam, I'd use it for that, then use my maps to reconfigure a journey. They're only reactive unlike the brain which can draw on a massive load of power and info and think ahead - "ok so the electronics say traffic's slow through that city but it's rush hour now and won't be by the time I reach it. And the back roads look a real sod."

 

I've had a love-hate relationship, when they get it right it's great but when not, the spatial-awareness bit of the brain is dumbed down usually and starting from almost scratch with your brain and maps takes a lot longer than doing it right with 5 minutes of planning in the first place. Besides, switching off yet another highly developed corner of the brain (especially so for the male) can't do the rest of the brain much good.

[AlabamaShrimp]

I've got a love - hate with them as well. They can be very good when you have no idea where you're going at all but also so clunky and slow that you can miss turns

 

Don't know what model mine is but it's a twat to use. It's slow to find satellites, got a shit touch screen that thinks you want to change the route and says the roundabout exit far too late but it's still better than the one I had before and has lifetime maps.

 

Always cross reference it with Google maps on my phone though and have a small atlas as it's instant and always works. When you really need it I always seem to be out of power, no Internet or the things just won't sodding work

[Noel Tidybeard]

i use sat-nags alot with the job, poojoe is better than vw one

i tried google which is cool being able to use satellite view BUT it will not re-route if you deviate from the given route

not long bought the tomtom go 500 which will also do an "eco" option as well as fast/short which is nice

[phil_lihp]

Maps are all very well and I always have a moderately up-to-date one in the car but they're not so good when you're driving on your own trying to find your way around an unfamiliar area.  I have a TomTom One which I got free back in about 2007 thanks to Amazon making a mistake with delivery.  It's now very out of date and has a few odd quirks such as miscounting the number of exits at a specific couple of roundabouts but it's never failed me except in London where it tends to lose its signal among the tall buildings.  

 

Personally I see them as a reliable guide to use once you've got the rough idea of a route from maps and/or past experience.  Mine will quietly and quickly recalculate routes when you make a wrong turn or ignore it and I do find it's a huge stress reliever on a long journey.

[Pillock]

 

 

i tried google which is cool being able to use satellite view BUT it will not re-route if you deviate from the given route

 

Does!

It also dynamically changes the route if there's traffic buildup. And as of a few months ago, even if you're not using Maps on your phone, it'll still ping up traffic warnings as a notification for the road you're on, or where it thinks you might want to go. So every day if I'm in Bristol, about 4pm it tells me about the M5 delays.

[HH-R]

Unless they have massively improved in the last year or so, I think they're SHITE and have totally given up on them. Instead I use Google Maps and print the directions, remembering as much as I can, stopping and reading it when I'm unsure (which is usually only once in the journey, about half way though).

 

The TomTom I had was utterly useless in city centres, it might as well have just switched off and displayed "NO IDEA" on the screen. I was once stuck on the Norwich ring road for what felt like hours, the sat nav just sending me round in circles and me not having any more of a clue than it did. When there were flyovers/junctions/ more than one street within 3 miles of another it was totally unclear which you were meant to take.

[Richard]

Preparing and memorising a route is all well and good until you find a Road Closed sign at a vital part of your route and you have to work out a way round it.

[retrogeezer]

Unless they have massively improved in the last year or so, I think they're SHITE and have totally given up on them. Instead I use Google Maps and print the directions, remembering as much as I can, stopping and reading it when I'm unsure (which is usually only once in the journey, about half way though).

 

The TomTom I had was utterly useless in city centres, it might as well have just switched off and displayed "NO IDEA" on the screen. I was once stuck on the Norwich ring road for what felt like hours, the sat nav just sending me round in circles and me not having any more of a clue than it did. When there were flyovers/junctions/ more than one street within 3 miles of another it was totally unclear which you were meant to take.

 

 

Strange, never had that issue at all with the tomtom I've had for about 3 years and the Navman I had for 6 years before that. The voice directions tell you what roads to take and they are written on the screen.

[ianmac]

Have relied on the very out of date Garmin for two trips to the ROI. Problem one no postcodes over there so took some time to figure out how to tell it where we were going. Once done it guided us out of Dublin faultlessly but didn't know about new motorways so gave us hours of route recalculation. Once in Galway no new roads so easy peasy. Second time it was confused by new roads and ended up sending in completely the wrong direction. Solution was to get the map out and do the rest of the journey that way only took 5 minutes to memorise the route. It died in France last month and the resulting map reading fail meant a ferry dash but no real problem. Conclusion: maps rule every time.

[Luckythirteen]

Got a cheap second hand Tom Tom thing off eBay for the GPS, as the speedo likes a nap once in a while. Or falls into a coma or something.

I have a road atlas, and know where most people/things I want to drive to, are. So I wasn't bothered with it as a sat nav. Until I twigged I could go the very long way round (i.e. have a random adventure) and let it guide me home when I got bored/hungry.

Poor thing. It sometimes freaks out and thinks I'm driving across fields, but Efficient Sounding English Woman is always at hand.

[stuboy]

anyone know a place to update my navman for free?

[HH-R]

I was using a BBC Micro model A converted to work over the cigarette lighter socket with a compass connected to the user port, is that where I was going wrong?

[forddeliveryboy]

Preparing and memorising a route is all well and good until you find a Road Closed sign at a vital part of your route and you have to work out a way round it.

 

If you prepare a route then the chances are you'll have a road atlas/map with you, in which case it's simple.

 

The one real-world benefit a satnav has over a good map (and a brain which can read it) is the audible warnings of speed cameras, just in case you're about to overtake the female on a phone in front who's driving between 35 and 60mph.

[forddeliveryboy]

I lent mine to a female friend who has gone to Cornwall. Had a phone call from her on the A1 an hour after leaving home - "the signs say Scotch Corner 30 minutes". I asked her to zoom out on the map, the thing was taking her North on the A1 for about 40 miles before turning around for Cornwall. She soon saw what a total waste of time and everything else, she's hardly daft but didn't know the roads when the thing said 'take the third exit". I know the feeling - you somehow trust these things and switch off your brain. Until you know.

[crapcarcollector]

Shite. Had one, chucked it out of the window when it kept insisting I was going the wrong way on the M42 (It was the latest in a series of "you want me to do what?" ). I can totally see why people would end up in sticky situations by blindly following them.

 

I often wonder if it's still lying there, in the central reservation. Stupid fucking thing. Never again.

[Felly Magic]

My old Twatnav would simply freeze up whenever I drove near Copdock interchange (A12/A14) near Ipswick. Pile of crap

[HillmanImp]

http://www.b3ta.com/challenge/madeup/popular/