Satellite Navigation Can Bite Me

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

OK. This is more of an observation than a rant, so it’s hardly pitworthy.

Tonight, I had my first experience of satellite navigation (on land) in a taxi on my way home from work. The trip is one I make daily in my own car, but tonight I was in a cab, and as the boss was paying for it anyway, and there are various routes to my house, I decided to let the SatNav thingy (of which the driver was very proud) show me what it could do.

TURN…RIGHT…ONE…HUNDRED…METRES…AHEAD, the American-accented voice booms authoritavely out of the dash.

This is okay except we’re actually about three car lengths from the turn, in the wrong lane, and travelling at speed. “Ummm, mate I think we’re supposed to…” Screeeeeeee

TAKE…THE…SECOND…TURN…ON…THE…RIGHT…

Hmmmmm, the second on the right is actually a dead end. The cabbie looks confused. Aah, no wait a sec. He’s got it. The machine means we are to follow the main road around to the right a little later (there’s nowhere else to go anyway).

We’re now on the highway, and rapidly approaching the turn I always take to go home (and after eight years I’ve tried each way, and trust me, I know the shortest). I’m thinking, “C’mon, you clattering case of cathodes and crap coding, speak up man!”

Silence from the machine.

The taxi continues on its merry way towards Melbourne, a thousand kilometres to the south. OK, so the trip home normally takes twenty-five minutes, but Melbourne’s nice this time of year, and we should be there by the middle of the next day.

TURN…RIGHT…TWO…HUNDRED…METRES…AHEAD.

By Jove, I think the boy’s got it! We turn onto a road which conceivably might be used to go to my suburb.

TURN…LEFT…ONTO…THE…MOTORWAY.

WTF? The Motor-bloody-way? If we go onto the motorway, we’d have to take the first exit, and then backtrack to my house, paying a hefty toll in the process. And it’s after midnight, so the normal road is quicker anyway. So I finally told the cabbie to ignore the machine, and to follow my directions. Eventually, we turn onto my street. “Is your house on the left?”, the cabbie asks me. “Yes mate”.

THE…DESTINATION…IS…ON…THE…

(Waaaaait for it! Waaaaait for it!)

…LEFT!

The cabbie adopts the look of a proud father.

“May I ask how much this thing cost you?”

“Only three and a half grand mate. Isn’t she a beaut?”

Hmmmm.

So anyone else had experiences with this technology? Good? Bad? I don’t think I’ll be rushing to install it in my car.

2

We use GPS on our boat, but I’ve never experienced it in a vehicle. I doubt that I’d trust it in any event. I prefer to look at maps myself and figure out my own route. I don’t even like Mapquest except as a gross planning tool - it’s plotted out blatantly stupid routes between cities. No, I’m not a control freak - I just know the better way!!

Nope, that Sat Nav thingie sounds unimpressive. I wouldn’t buy it.

3

On fishing trips, my brother very proudly holds up his GPS and exclaims, “we are now within 50 feet of the hole”.

As any good fisherman knows, if you are 50 feet from the hole, you might as well be 1000 miles from the hole.

His father-in-law (the best fisherman I ever met) then quietly says, “Good job, now lets just slide over by the reeds just off that point there.”

I just try to keep my mouth shut and hope the fish bite.

4

I didn’t buy a navigation system, but I cobbled one together on my own. GPS unit, computer, and Street Atlas 8.

It does relatively well, but I don’t use it for realtime directions like that. I use it to plan a route in advance, if I don’t know the way, or if I do, just to display a map and let me know where I am.

The couple of times I’ve tried the realtime directions, it’s waited until too late to say anything (guess that happens when you’re going 75 instead of 55), and the voice isn’t exactly clear over the road noise.

5

I have one in my car and find it invaluable.

Caveat: I didn’t grow up here and have only lived here for two years so a lot of times I don’t know where I’m going.

A lot of it has to do with how you program those things. For instance, once you choose to enter the address and do so (on mine you can also enter intersection, points of interest, etc) there are three choices, (shortest route, most use of highways, least use of highways) each of which can give dramatically different directions.

Occassionally, it gets screwed up/lost, but that usually has to do with being in a parking garage where I’m diving and driving, but not really going anywhere.

I tend to keep the sound off (because it’s irritating as hell) and just use the map function.

6

Our neighbour has it in his new Citroen C5. It doesn’t work in Northern Ireland so as an optional extra it was a bit of a bummer. Not like you can really get lost here anyway…

7

Our neighbour has it in his new Citroen C5. It doesn’t work in Northern Ireland so as an optional extra it was a bit of a bummer. Not like you can really get lost here anyway.
(Partial aside- before the OP said Melbourne I thought he lived in England for some reason, the lingo seems so similar to British English)

8

ughhh double post apologies I changed my mind about posting while I was in the middle of submitting

9

I’ve been bitten by satellite navigation. It’s got big nasty pointy teeth. :eek:

:stuck_out_tongue:

10

I’ve had one in my car for over a year, I love it. Main thing to remember is that GPS has an error in distance, so can be off. That is why the better ones warn you at 1/2 mile, and then at 500 feet, and then at the turn itself.