GPS nightmare

[foodfisher]

Re: GPS nightmare

What in the world takes you to so many far away places? Talk about saddlesores.

 

[dingbat]

Re: GPS nightmare

What in the world takes you to so many far away places? Talk about saddlesores.

I provide sales and support of industrial systems for heavy industry. I have been on the road for the past 15 years, worked out of a home office for the past ten. Seeing and experiencing the world on someone else’s dime. I would not have it any other way.

 

[H20Rat]

Re: GPS nightmare

I've tried various dedicated GPS devices, they all failed miserably. So far, google maps navigation on my android has been rock solid and has not once tried to kill me! (except for one time in Phoenix, when it routed me through some fairly shady areas because I mistakenly had it on 'walking' mode instead of driving. Of course, it was REALLY concerning that it would route a pedestrian through those areas!)

 

[greenbush future]

Re: GPS nightmare

I think part of the problem is many rely upon the new technologies to do it all then get upset when they don't get good results 100% of the time. So knowing how to use a map, or planning a bit in advance (like we all used to do) is really a good choice. It's never a good idea to just use the GPS, as shown.

 

[Limited-Time]

Re: GPS nightmare

Like anything, you get what you pay for and what you put into it. Don?t update the maps on the regular basis and expect to find yourself lost now and then.

I?m on the road a lot for work. Pittsburgh today, Phoenix tomorrow, San Diego the following day. London, Frankfurt and Zurich the following week. I relay heavily on GPS to get me to customer facilities, hotels and restaurant. Paper maps are useless. Don?t know about you, but I?ve never seen street addresses on a paper maps. Mapquest and Google maps are almost as useless. Who carries a printer around with them? I used to leave my laptop open in the front seat of the car with mapquest running for a while. Got smart and bought a nice Garmin Nuvi with a lifetime map and traffic updates. Gets me where I am going 98.2% of the time w/o and issue.

Bingo............the people I know who have trouble with GPS type devices generally do not believe in them, in the first place.

 

[rivermouse]

Re: GPS nightmare

Note to self...NEVER go any place near a bike rally and never use a GPS to go some place you have been dozens of times before without using one.

 

[gpfishingdude]

Re: GPS nightmare

You are lucky your wife wasn't along to yell at you for going the wrong way too. The other day we were looking for a county fairgrounds that we had been at two years ago. I knew what highway we took before to get there but we took the wrong exit from the tollway. She kept screaming at me to stop and look at the map and I told her I was going to keep driving south until I got to Highway 20. When we got too highway 20 it was just a short distance from there. But she insists that I went the wrong way.

 

[TerryMSU]

Re: GPS nightmare

GPS is generally quite accurate, although in certain areas there is an intentionally reduced accuracy. A few years ago, my wife and I were in St. Loius on a trip and were near the Federal reserve bank. The accuracy was intentionally poor. The other thing that can throw off accuracy is reflections off tall buildings, etc. That is called urban canyon. Mostly, though, the "GPS Errors" that you see are errors in the map data base. GPS tells you where you are. The map data base tells you where everything else is located at. Things like sending you down a wrong way street, or on a non-existing route are technically map data base errors, not GPS errors. That said, when I bought my first hand held GPS many years ago, I had it route me to a near-by camping area that I had never been to. It routed me down a road that kept getting worse and finally petered out completely. The cause... I had the GPS trying to route a pedestrian, not a vehicle. If I were hiking in, the route would have been fine. In the minivan, no so great.

TerryMSU

 

[jayhanig]

Re: GPS nightmare

For years my GPS insisted that the way to my house included a right turn followed by another immediate right turn as soon as you crossed the bridge onto the island. Of course, had I followed its directions, my truck would be going for a swim in the sound. I complained on a semi-regular basis to Garmin. My latest map revision actually got it right, so all is good for now, until I find its next screwup.

Once, just for S&G, I decided to follow a GPS suggested route between Topsail Beach and Charlotte, NC. It took me to the banks of the Cape Fear River where a ferry was to transport me across during certain months of the year. Sadly, this wasn't one of them. Every day a new adventure.