Crackpot Satnav Route

[NickPick]

Satnav routes cars along clifftop track:

 

Story here

[alistair_uk]

This weekend someone said that you need to use a little common sense when using Sat Nav, the response was "so that is where I have been going wrong then".

 

On a slightly more serious point you might find this report from this weeks "Click" on BBC News 24 and BBC Word http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/clic...ine/4865598.stm .

[+Alibags]

I have borrowed and used my friends Garmin I3 a couple of times. On the plus side, it has made navigating to addresses in towns I have never been to before relatively painless, however, despite being set to "bus" I find it is fairly optimistic about my speeds and ability to get down unmade up tracks. On more than one occasion it has attempted to send us down a bridleway. I think they are a useful tool, but should be taken with a pinch of common sense. Dont drive down any track you dont like the look of, despite what your satnav may be telling you!

 

I also used the I3 when I went round the Magic Roundabout in Hemel. Those of you you who are not familiar with this wonderful thing may not know that you can go round it clockwise or anticlockwise, as the fancy takes you. Well, I went round anticlockwise. The I3 confidently showed me as going round clockwise. This shows that it knows what a roundabout was, and so it was impossible that I was driving round the way I was. Tell that to the stupid c*w I met head on yesterday, performing a u-turn on a conventional roundabout because she obviously could not be bothered to go all the way round it, having missed her turn

[SandyGarrity]

I always knew drivers disengaged brains!

Edited April 5, 2006 by SandyGarrity

[Omega2]

I wish I had known about that road when I went after Greenmantle's Crackpot cache GCGKY9.

 

I made the mistake of walking there. If I had used a little common sense I could have driven there.

[alistair_uk]

It is not just Sat Nav systems that can get confused. I can not find the Register report on this but this http://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2005/11/w...t-quite-get.htm is someones blog on the incident.

[+wizard1974uk]

It is not just Sat Nav systems that can get confused. I can not find the Register report on this but this http://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2005/11/w...t-quite-get.htm is someones blog on the incident.

 

I remember that one

 

The great thing about the AA road planner it tells me turn into a particular road where I live, difficulty in that there is a path and a hedge in the way.

Edited April 5, 2006 by wizard1974uk

[+Woody's Wanderers]

There is the tale of the German driver who put his new BMW into a river because his sat nav showed a bridge over it. He ignored all the road signs that said different!

[+Geo-Kate]

Mine has asked me to drive down roads that clearly do not allow you to do so, on the weekend, it asked me to drive through an estate of tower blocks and I got to a big barrier, beyond which was a 'park' or what was now a rubbish dump, with the road continuing the other side of it.

Locally to me there is a hospital for the mentally ill, which has a road through it. The road is obvouisly closed, with only foot access through the hospital grounds, but my GPS was convinced my car would fit! The thing is, if a road was changed recently, I would understand, but these roads have been like this for at least 20 years or more, before digital maps were created!

 

My GPS also seems to favour the smallest, narrowest, darkest country lanes as soon as we get out of the cities, even though I have told it I am driving an HGV! The scary thing is, it takes me over weak bridges and under low bridges happily, despite thinking my 3 door Honda Civic is in fact an HGV

 

With regard to unmade roads, I have set mine to avoid such, and so far has done so dutifully.

 

I do get into the biggest dilemmas, though;

 

When driving through an area I do not know to a destination, my GPS sometimes tells me to go in one direction, when the road signs seem to be directing me in another. Do I follow my box of tricks, or do I follow the 'suggested' signposted route? I still feel a sense of panic when signs and GPS don't agree!

[+Geo-Kate]

There is the tale of the German driver who put his new BMW into a river because his sat nav showed a bridge over it. He ignored all the road signs that said different!

 

I have heard a similar story (here?) with a driver driving through dense fog off a ferry terminal!

[+geoffenator]

It is not just Sat Nav systems that can get confused. I can not find the Register report on this but this http://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2005/11/w...t-quite-get.htm is someones blog on the incident.

 

They've done a few, here's one I liked www.theregister.co.uk. The article contains links to some of the others.

 

Geoff

[+The Forester]

The webgeek slot on BBC News24 did a piece about one of the dataproviders (NavTeq, I think) and how they survey the roads. They seemed to be very thorough and made copious observations and notes all the way through every metre of every road the have on their database. I don't think their database would have cockups like that "Crackpot" dirt track in Yorkshire that the programme showed this evening.

 

Always remember an old military adage: The map is not the territory.

 

I suppose it's ironic that nav systems should be the cause of people getting lost, but there is a precedent. When ships began to be fitted with radars there was an increase, not a decrease in the number of collisions. The phenomenon became known as "radar assisted collisions". When GPSr became widespread in light aircraft about 15 years ago there was an increase, not a decrease, in the numbers of controlled and restricted airspace infringements. Some pilots tended to bimble on a direct track from A to B, concentrating too much on the GPS arrow and not enough on their charts.

 

I still love GPS though!

[+Simply Paul]

Yep, Crackpot has been all over the news today. Even the guys at Hat Trick Productions (name dropper! The make Room 101, Have I Got New For You, etc) were talking about it when I had a meeting with them earlier. I wonder how many byways GPS systems try to send you (legally) down, only to find a locked farmer's gate at the end. I know my OS map does this... Gurr!

[+Sue and Bernie]

I smile at all the abuse that is heaped on SatNav systems and their users when these hilarious events abound. If the story about the bloke blindly following his box into a river is true, he needs locking up!

 

What all the detractors of SatNav forget is that the box is simply reacting to information programmed in by people. As a regular Garmin Streetpilot user, I've got used to half the road ahead "disappearing" when I zoom out because, at the side junction ahead, the road I'm going to be driving along has been classified as less significant than the current bit. GIGO is still the paramount rule!

 

A fine example exists near Marham in Norfolk, the box will try to direct me off the main route we all use to drive to the A10 onto a single track road to Shouldham village, through the village, then back onto the same main road. It's not the programme - it's the road data that is programmed wrong. The box wants me to turn off because someone's told it that the other bit of road is better than the one I'm on. They were wrong so I simply continue on the obviously more comfortable road I'm on and let the box re-route.

 

Driving with SatNav is infinitely better than relying on maps. On a recent business trip, the host company booked a hotel for me. I looked the hotel up on the internet in seconds, plugged the post code straight into the box and went there in one go. Delayed by an accident on the M25, I was really grateful to be able to drive into Yeovil for the first time in my life and get directed straight to my hotel. No maps, no stops for directions, just straight to the door. Bloody Marvellous!

Edited April 5, 2006 by Sue and Bernie

[alistair_uk]

The webgeek slot on BBC News24 did a piece about one of the dataproviders (NavTeq, I think) and how they survey the roads.

You can actually view the report online through the link I posted above. Go on, you won’t regret it.

 

Update : I had the crackpot idea of copying the link so you don’t need to scroll to the top. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/clic...ine/4865598.stm

Edited April 5, 2006 by alistair_uk

[adrianjohn]

The webgeek slot on BBC News24 did a piece about one of the dataproviders (NavTeq, I think) and how they survey the roads. They seemed to be very thorough and made copious observations and notes all the way through every metre of every road the have on their database. I don't think their database would have cockups like that "Crackpot" dirt track in Yorkshire that the programme showed this evening.

 

I still love GPS though!

My Highlight

 

My Magellan GPSr has data supplied by NavTeq and it has directed me along an unmade road beside an allotment garden, completely ignored a local bypass which shows on the mapping, and often taken me off primary routes in favour of lesser roads.

I do however, like The Forester, "still love GPS though!"

It's like being married, sometimes its's better to stop listening to the nagging.

 

Satnav VS Wife:

 

SATNAV: Turn Left in 200 Yards

 

SATNAV: Turn Left in 100 Yards

 

SATNAV: Turn Left Now

 

WIFE: .........

 

WIFE: .........

 

WIFE: YOU SHOULD HAVE TURNED LEFT THERE!

[+rutson]

Hmmm.... critisise sat nav all you like. I was agency driving today for a well know courier, I arrived in the area, and did 36 drops in 4 hours, almost exactly the same time as it would take the guy who's been doing the same area for the last five years.

 

Could I have done this with a map? Not a cat in hells chance! Admittedly, at one point I did find myself crossing a railway line at an unmanned level crossing on a farm track 3" deep in mud..... but I can forgive that ONE mistake.

[+Learned Gerbil]

Long before we got Satnav I showed Gerbil Queen an online demo of TomTom. She said "What happens if you go the wrong way?"

I said "It says "You bloody fool! You should have turned there! You are going to have to turn round now arn't you? You're useless!""

[+sTeamTraen]

There is the tale of the German driver who put his new BMW into a river because his sat nav showed a bridge over it. He ignored all the road signs that said different!

 

I have heard a similar story (here?) with a driver driving through dense fog off a ferry terminal!

 

AFAIK that's the original story - I think WW has maybe heard a version with a bridge but it sounds like a "Chinese whispers" version of the same thing. See for example here, and Google for "Caputh Havel BMW ferry" for more.

[+wizard1974uk]

I think some people definitely disengage brain when using satnav/gps.

 

So if the GPS told you to take a lemming dive off a cliff, you'd do it?

[+Rosie's Rangers]

It seems to be the hot topic in the press at the moment. (Clip below from The Telegraph)

 

[+Paul G0TLG]

I think it's amazing that if people get lost using a map, they (normally) blame their own mapreading: If they get lost using GPS, they blame the GPS. For heavens' sake, it's just a tool! A really useful, hi-tech, and rarely-wrong tool, but a tool nonetheless, and it needs the user to put some effort into learning how to get the best from it.

 

I used TomTom all last weekend, driving around a town with which I was completely unfamiliar. At one point the spoken direction says "turn left" when the on-screen display and common sense both say turn right - in two or three years of TomTom use, that's the second time that's happened to me, which is a far better record than any human-led navigation could manage. It'll do for me :-)

[+HazelS]

I too read the article yesterday and thought to myself that if my TT told me to go that way, then I would go that way too... shows hoe much we rely on them...

 

However - I'm certain I'd never go driving through a river just because TT said there was a bridge there!

 

Before the days of me using TT, we used Autoroute, and had several hairy moments of trying to turn around when it tried to make us drive down Bridleways!

[+psi-lo]

My in-laws have a built-in GPS in their vehicle and it's mostly great but it does however have a fondness for Bradford.

They live to the west of the city and where ever they're going to the east of Bradford the GPS will try and go through it regardless. Don't you love technology.

[+Nellies Knackers]

Long before we got Satnav I showed Gerbil Queen an online demo of TomTom. She said "What happens if you go the wrong way?"

I said "It says "You bloody fool! You should have turned there! You are going to have to turn round now arn't you? You're useless!""

 

I won't say what the 'roger mellie'(from viz) voice on my tomtom says when you go the wrong way as theres already been one topic deleted for bad language this week, very amusing for small minded people like me though.

[+We'reLostAgain]

We get a lot of artics parked outside my mom an dads house because SatNav have told them its a shot cut to a local depot-shame bout the 7'6 width and 3 tonne limit at the bridge. Also its a problem of the 7 1/2 limit they been driving thru for 20 mins and the 12 warning signs about the restrictions.

 

'TomTom say this way' is no excuse-maybe they should learn to read road signs!!!

 

ps i am a truck driver with SatNav but common sense takes over sometimes

[+The Cache Hoppers]

We call our SatNav Doris, but she is fast becoming known as Dotty Doris. All this week in Devon we relied on her heavily to get us about and she coped fairly well. However ... on one occasion she suggested we turned right at the T-junction and continued along the road for 3,600+ miles which caused raucous laughter, and another time she suggested we continue along the road for 7,000+ miles. We also saw some very interesting country lanes that we wouldn't otherwise have entertained driving along but decided to go with it and were rewarded with sights of flora and fauna galore. We suspect Dotty Doris had been on the Devon/Somerset cider!

[+molrams]

We have just comeback form the South Hams area of Devon and our i3 showed a desire to explore many 'Unsuitable for Motor Vehicle' lanes. Even some of the tarmac roads we went along were a bit marginal. My solution was to drive with the i3 navigating and Fugawi showing me the map on my PDA. That way I could see whether the Ordnance Survey agreed with the i3's optimistic view of the route.

[Lavareef]

Reminds me of the Rossendale Way near me. On some maps it's listed as a B-road like any other. Anyone who actually knows the road though knows it heads right over the moors, complete with cows grazing on it, bounders in the way and 2-foot-deep potholes. It's a pain to motorbike over, a car has no chance.

 

One of the mapping websites plotted a route that went over that "road", needless to say we took it with a pinch of salt from then on.

Edited April 7, 2006 by Lavareef

[mike & jude]

Coincidence we call ours Doris as well , last year she/it wanted us to turn right off of a viaduct just outside of Malaga big drop . It just kept loosing the plot in the same area even with loads of sat's.

[Lavareef]

Coincidence we call ours Doris as well

 

Not co-incidence, it's scary. When my parents hire a car, and I'm with them, we call it Doris as well

[+geoffenator]

Coincidence we call ours Doris as well , last year she/it wanted us to turn right off of a viaduct just outside of Malaga big drop . It just kept loosing the plot in the same area even with loads of sat's.

 

Ours has had a few names since we got it. She started off as Henrietta the Navigator, then briefly was Shirley (as in surely we can't be lost). Now she's Dora (the explorer).

 

She's only done one really strange route and even that was just a simulation. She got stuck on the M621 in Leeds trying to find a route from the M62 to the M1 (yes, exactly). Once on the M621 she drove backwards and forwards trying to decide which was the best way off.

[EagleOwl]

 

She's only done one really strange route and even that was just a simulation. She got stuck on the M621 in Leeds trying to find a route from the M62 to the M1 (yes, exactly). Once on the M621 she drove backwards and forwards trying to decide which was the best way off.

 

That is apart from telling me I was 'arriving at destination' outside someones house last Tuesday when I expected to be at the Uni of Hertfordshire. To get there she had taken us wiggling in and out of a housing estate. Luckily I had a small local map and eventually rounded up the destination! On the way back she must have heard me grumbling about her as she took me straight onto the motorway

 

EagleOwl (AKA Mrs Geoffenator)