Latest grab by auto manufactures

[buckeyefarmer]

They do not need cell towers for GPS to work.

They do/ can use cell tower to determine location. And it’s not using your data.

Moss, I think we are on 2 different subjects here.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Cell phones don't use satellite GPS. They triangulate off the cell phone towers. No signal, no GPS. Same principle is used for 911 to determine a cell phone's location.

My phone does both it has GPS receiver, but it can use cell tower info.

 

[Eagle1]

If you lock yourself out of your car, On Star can open it for you.

Only if you are in cell range. I've had 2 here they tow 20 miles so Onstar could connect and unlock the car.

 

[JasperFrank]

I love paper maps. The more detailed the better. My office has an entire file cabinet filled with just maps. The older they are, the more fun they are to look at and use for recreational adventure traveling. The ones I most love, are forest service maps from the 40's and 50's. They show where all the abandoned camp sites and trails are and features of interest that no one visits any more and you have these places all to your self. In the 30 years of driving into the middle of no where, I've never needed a GPS.

I do not understand the logic of directly incorporating tech like GPS and entertainment directly into cars. Wouldn't it be better to just have a display that you plug in your remote device, like a smart phone or other handheld? That way, the car is never outdated. You just up date the remote device and not the car. Why pay for two subscriptions?

And one thng I've never seen on the web, when people are demonstrating assisted driving, is what happens if the car doesn't sense that you are looking forward. What does it do after sounding alarms and such? Does it just keep driving? Does it auto-pullover? Does it just come to a stop in the middle of the freeway? Seriously, I've never seen what the failsafe is in actual traffic.

 

[tacticalturnip]

Wasn’t negating anything, just answering a question. Happens in WV also. I’ve had waze screen go blank as it could not update the map. Google maps can be downloaded local to prevent this problem

My apologies for misreading the tone of your post!

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I love paper maps. The more detailed the better. My office has an entire file cabinet filled with just maps. The older they are, the more fun they are to look at and use for recreational adventure traveling. The ones I most love, are forest service maps from the 40's and 50's. They show where all the abandoned camp sites and trails are and features of interest that no one visits any more and you have these places all to your self.

I like maps also.
I have bought a lot of topo maps, back before the internet. I have a bunch of the Delorme map books also.

 

[JasperFrank]

I love the Delorme topo maps also. I have one that shows you exactly where to find Bigfoot. LOL. I know its a mark for copyright reasons, but it is still fun. The older maps have Points of Interest. Sometimes these are way off the beaten path that you would not have known about using an electronic map. These are always interesting. And you are the only person there, as the electronic maps don't show these places.

Google Maps can get you in to problems, as once we found what Google Maps called a Park and colored it green like any other park for day camping, turned out to be private property. The owner was very pissed off after we had set up camp. We apologized, and got out of there as fast as possible. Then wrote to Google that this was not public land.

I suggest that everyone look at their land and see how it is displayed in Google Earth and Google Maps. If you find something weird, write to them and they will correct it rather quickly.

 

[MossRoad]

They do/ can use cell tower to determine location. And it’s not using your data.

Moss, I think we are on 2 different subjects here.

OK Now I’m lost (nothing new there, but funny, as we’re taking maps!).

Subject #1:
I have a cell phone that has GPS. I’m out in the middle of nowhere, zero bars, no signal, using Google Maps, and it’s chugging along showing me where I’m at and moving right along. 100% GPS satellites. No cell towers.


Subject #2:
??

 

[paulfun9]

I just have a couple observations to add to this. You are correct on something like an engine or transmission. However, there are other things at play. Economies of scale are a real thing. Lets use a headlight switch in a Ford Mustang as an example. Every automobile has to have a headlight switch.

There were 52,414 Ford Mustangs sold in 2021. So we will assume the same number of headlight switches and that these switches are only used for the mustangs.

There can be multiple options:
1. Manual headlights no fog lights
2. Manual headlights with fog lights
3. Auto headlights no fog lights
4. Auto headlights with fog lights

Automated tooling is very expensive. I would estimate that tooling for each switch *could* be in the $200,000 range, regardless of options.

Assume 80% of the cars use all options. 41,931 cars. $4.77 per switch for tooling.
Assume there is $5 worth of material and labor in each. $9.77 each switch total.

Now assume only 5% use the manual option with no fog light. That makes $76.31 in tooling per switch.
Even if the cost of labor and material was half for this switch, they would still cost Ford $78.81 each.

Well then there is your problem, if my husband can install fog lights, all the wireing and the switch for less than ford can install just the switch, maybe they are making some bad choices financially and that doesn’t mean they should subsidize that cost by forcing me to pay 178.99 for the upgraded switch that I don’t want or need.

So the next thing you will try and convince me is they can have all the wires and the fog lights present on the car, not working for the same cost as not having them at all?

I can’t say if your numbers add up factually or not, but I assure you if I worked at Ford the bean counter who is saying 78.99 is ok for a light switch, would be fired.

Janet

 

[buckeyefarmer]

OK Now I’m lost (nothing new there, but funny, as we’re taking maps!).

Subject #1:
I have a cell phone that has GPS. I’m out in the middle of nowhere, zero bars, no signal, using Google Maps, and it’s chugging along showing me where I’m at and moving right along. 100% GPS satellites. No cell towers.


Subject #2:
??

Yea, you’re lost.
My original response was to post 313. I’m not sure all phones have GPS built in. If you don’t, I was pointing out phones can use cell location data also to determine location. But without either you’re sol

without data, unless you have map pre downloaded, you might end up with a blank map page.
I had it happen to me last fall hiking in VA GPS doesn’t work well under tree cover. Even my portable garmin doesn’t do well under trees.