Common sense and GPS?

[JethroB]

Google maps had our plant located on North Moon St. instead of the correct South Moon St. We received many irate calls from nearby property owners complaining about semi trucks trying to turn around on their property. I went through Googles error reporting process and after a few months it got corrected. I was a little impressed.

 

[hube2]

There is a place near me that used to be a village green. There are 5 roads into it that crisscross each other. This green generally gets people lost following their GPS to my house and I have to go out an get them because they tell me they are driving around in circles. I was curious so I used my GPS from a place that would bring me across it. There are several places where multiple roads meet, at one place there is an intersection what appears to be a 3 way fork but is 2 roads exiting at angles off the road you're on. The GPS says to "make a slight left" There are 2 choices that qualify, the left that is the same road and is nearly straight. If you take the left you head off in the wrong direction and the GPS has you make more lefts until you are confronted with the same intersection telling you to "make a slight left". If you never realize that you actually need the center choice and to stay on the road you're on you'll just go round and round forever. I'm generally nice to the people that come to visit, but you'd think that after a couple of circuits they'd try something different.

This is likely the reason that most delivery trucks are late, in addition to the GPS sending them to my neighbors house. I guess I could go on google and see about fixing the second issue... but I think that delivery drivers should learn how to look at the house number signs with the huge numbers that we are required to have around here

 

[k0ua]

If you think about all of the streets, twist, turns, etc... in the U.S., most digital mapping systems are pretty accurate. Lot's more details than paper maps. And you can usually flip to satellite view if you don't believe what the on-screen map is showing. All-in-all, we are a spoiled lot and have it pretty easy.

True that. And for the most part GPS navigation even on a smartphone works pretty well. After all I used it for some time to find peoples houses tucked into all sort of out of the way places in Southwest Missouri to try to sell them Medicare Supplements. Only once in a while would there be a problem and you would have to use common sense. But I think anyone that uses GPS navigation a lot has a story to two to tell.

 

[MossRoad]

True that. And for the most part GPS navigation even on a smartphone works pretty well. After all I used it for some time to find peoples houses tucked into all sort of out of the way places in Southwest Missouri to try to sell them Medicare Supplements. Only once in a while would there be a problem and you would have to use common sense. But I think anyone that uses GPS navigation a lot has a story to two to tell.

I've always used a stand alone GPS until this summer. We let one of our children borrow our car for a few months while her's was getting repaired and left the GPS with that car. So I've been using the GPS on the iPhone all summer. It works pretty well. I like the traffic feature that we don't get on the old GPS unit. But the screen is very small, and seems to give you information right at the time you need it VS it would be nice to know you have to turn more than 2 seconds before you need to make a decision.

 

[k0ua]

I've always used a stand alone GPS until this summer. We let one of our children borrow our car for a few months while her's was getting repaired and left the GPS with that car. So I've been using the GPS on the iPhone all summer. It works pretty well. I like the traffic feature that we don't get on the old GPS unit. But the screen is very small, and seems to give you information right at the time you need it VS it would be nice to know you have to turn more than 2 seconds before you need to make a decision.

Yeah, can't lollygag around, when she says turn, you probably need to be turning.

 

[BackRoad]

Remember reading in the future, every car sold would have GPS.

Nah, that will never happen...

Would never have believed it if they said every BODY over 8 years old will have one!

Followed the GPS in my wife's Acura MDX...it guided us around all 4 leafs of an interstate interchange near Hope PA, then back onto the route we were following originally.

And of course, I HAD to follow it just to be able to say we did it!

 

[Jstpssng]

I've mentioned this before... the only app which I've downloaded to my phone is called "PDFMaps". I can generate (or buy) georeferenced maps and keep track of exactly where I am on the landscape. It's a handy tool, I can make a photomap of an area I want to look at and tell exactly where I am at all times. The downside is that my current phone is an iPhone which doesn't allow me to download from my laptop, so I need to make my map before leaving home, and email it to myself.
I also carry a handheld GPS, and now everybody has been issued a Garmin Inreach which can be synced with a phone so that we can send messages without cell coverage. That last also has an SOS button in case I really get in trouble... not sure if it works and I don't intend to ever find out. So I'm supposed to carry GPS, phone, InReach… yet the one tool that will make me go back to the truck is if I forget my compass.

 

[MossRoad]

Yeah, can't lollygag around, when she says turn, you probably need to be turning.

Recalculating.... :laughing:

 

[sandman2234]

I have been chasing roads for a while. I have a $585 truck GPS on the dash and still use my cell. I look at the routes before I leave, to see where it is taking me. Got to have a little common sense when you drive one of these rigs...
David from jax

 

[Deere Dude]

i have a lifetime updatable GPS and love it and trust it most times and the cell phone saved my bacon more than once. But, I never leave on a trip or just out lollygagging without a paper state map and I make sure I have a US magazine version of state maps in both vehicles, and used them.