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Don't trust your Sat Navs


AV Dezign

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Drivers warned: Don't trust your Sat Navs

Wed Aug 29, 2007 8:56AM EDT

By Andrew Hough

 

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's first official road signs to warn drivers about the dangers of trusting their satellite navigation devices (satnavs) were introduced on Tuesday in a Welsh village.

 

The signs, introduced by authorities in rural St Hilary, in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales, to warn drivers about placing too much faith in the directional gadgets, could be brought in across the country if the trial is successful.

 

Problems were reported after foreign drivers found it difficult to understand phrases such as "unsuitable for heavy goods vehicles" but could understand pictorial notices, media reported.

 

The four signs have been introduced around one particular black spot in the village, where the electronic devices direct truck drivers to a shortcut between the main M4 motorway and Cardiff airport.

 

The road is far too narrow for many to travel down, causing them to get stuck and sparking major traffic problems.

 

More than a dozen large lorries had become stuck in the road in the past six months, according to traffic engineer Mark Simpson who came up with the idea for the signs.

 

"We have had a series of problems with drivers getting into trouble by trusting their satnavs and we needed to do something about it," Simpson was quoted in newspapers as saying.

 

"They can send drivers on the most direct routes which turn out to be narrow roads completely unsuitable for heavy and long trucks and lorries. Satnav can be a wonderful tool for drivers but it does have its dangers."

 

If successful, officials plan a national roll-out of the signs to combat what is seen as a growing problem for frustrated motorists, with recent figures showing that more than four million of Britain's 32 million drivers rely on satnavs.

 

Some have reported that software glitches have sent drivers down one-way streets or up impassable mountain tracks.

 

One ambulance driver with a faulty satnav drove hundreds of miles in the wrong direction while transferring a patient from one hospital in Ilford east of London to another just 8 miles

 

away.

 

A spokesman for the Welsh Assembly regional government said that officials would be "watching closely" the trial's results before deciding whether to expand the program.

 

He also said that officials from Britain's Department of Transport had been consulted and were also monitoring the experiment.

 

© Reuters 2007. All rights reserved.

 

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Edited by AV Dezign
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One ambulance driver with a faulty satnav drove hundreds of miles in the wrong direction while transferring a patient from one hospital in Ilford east of London to another just 8 miles

 

I think the word "faulty" needs to be moved four words to the left here. The crew wanted to go from Ilford to nearby Brentwood, their satnav knew about Brentwood (suburb of Manchester) as well as Brentwood (town in Essex), and they not only chose the wrong one, they also drove 3/4 of the way up the M6 before spotting the error. The satnav wasn't remotely "faulty".

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Another reason not to trust your SatNav...

http://www.gtr.co.uk/forum/upload/82089-ne...st-sat-nav.html

:) A funny story, but again if you go past a sign saying "Not Suitable for Motor Vehicles" you can have little cause for complaint. :)

 

There's a helpdesk term PEBKAC "Problem Exists Between Keyboard and Chair" In these cases, it's a case of the less easily pronounced PEBSASW - Problem exists between seat and steering wheel"

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We use TomTom (on the Mio P550) to get close to caches.

The thing that irritates me is the choice between 'Fastest Route' and 'Shortest Route'

The other day we selected fastest route and it was a good ten miles longer than the shortest route which had an estimated journey time of an extra minute! ;)

How about a 'Common Sense Route' option? ;)

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The other day we selected fastest route and it was a good ten miles longer than the shortest route which had an estimated journey time of an extra minute! ;)

How about a 'Common Sense Route' option? ;)

 

Kinda begs the question... "Why did you select it, then?"

 

How about a 'Common Sence User' option?

 

 

:D:D:D:D:D:o

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