Syrian lorry driver takes a 1,600 mile detour to Gibraltar via Skegness thanks to sat

dontclickonthis

A Syrian lorry driver transporting luxury cars from Turkey to Gibraltar was sent on a 1,600 mile detour to Skegness by his satellite navigation system Dip****

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2440539/Syrian-lorry-driver-takes-a-1600-mile-detour-to-Gibraltar-via-Skegness-thanks-to-sat-nav.html

x in the city

should have used google maps with android...

slimjimmc

I've heard this story a couple of times lately. Strange how a 3 year old story becomes popular again.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2440539/Syrian-lorry-driver-takes-a-1600-mile-detour-to-Gibraltar-via-Skegness-thanks-to-sat-nav.html

By Aislinn Simpson 10:02PM BST 21 Jul 2008

AugustusMinimus

Must have thought Gibraltar was in the UK.

unkel

Gibraltar is in the UK

peasant

tsk ...everybody knows that Gibraltar is in Sligo

('tis ...honestly !)

Our man in Havana

unkel wrote: »

Gibraltar is in the UK

Technically it is.

But they have their own country identifier for vehicles, GBZ.

slimjimmc

unkel wrote: »

Gibraltar is in the UK

Oh no it isn't
(your turn)

Our man in Havana wrote: »

Technically it is.

But they have their own country identifier for vehicles, GBZ.

Technically it's not.
The UK consists only Great Britain and Northern Ireland, everything else is either a Crown Dependency or a British Overseas Territory

Gibraltor is just one of the latter. It has it's own laws and government but the UK retains sovereignty. Gibraltor citizens are not registered as British citizens by default but are entitled to register if they wish. The Gibraltar Passport is a slightly different edition of the UK one but is recognised as the same because of the UK's sovereignty.

dharn

must be a place in Scotland called Gibraltar also

Our man in Havana

Gibraltar is part of the European Union, having joined via the Single European Act 1972 and British Treaty of Accession in 1973, with exemption from some areas such as the Customs union and Common Agricultural Policy. The Treaties relating to coal and steel, agriculture and fisheries do not apply simply because Gibraltar does not produce any of those resources. After a ten-year campaign for the right to vote in European Elections, from 2004, the people of Gibraltar participated in elections for the European Parliament as part of the South West England constituency.

Kintarō Hattori

slimjimmc wrote: »

I've heard this story a couple of times lately. Strange how a 3 year old story becomes popular again.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2440539/Syrian-lorry-driver-takes-a-1600-mile-detour-to-Gibraltar-via-Skegness-thanks-to-sat-nav.html

It was mentioned on some cop program this week on Sky One.

unkel

slimjimmc wrote: »

Technically it's not.

I know it isn't

Ever check the price of fags / booze over there? Far too cheap to be in the UK

Daegerty

x in the city wrote: »

should have used google maps with android...

Feck that. http://www.google.com/googlegulp/ would do him more good

RandomAccess

Not sure how clever google maps is either.

Sligo to Cork

Route 1, 2, 3

Route 1 (the default)

Takes 1minute longer than route 3, is €5 dearer, and 40km longer
The only pro I can see is that it includes motorway, so it would be an 'easier' drive. But that road down the midlands is a bit of a back breaker if I recall correctly so that would more than offset the motorway benefit.

And now that I think of it, most of the road from Galway to Limerick is motorway now as well..

What say you?

RandomAccess

RandomAccess wrote: »

Not sure how clever google maps is either.

Sligo to Cork

Route 1, 2, 3

Route 1 (the default)

Takes 1minute longer than route 3, is €5 dearer, and 40km longer
The only pro I can see is that it includes motorway, so it would be an 'easier' drive. But that road down the midlands is a bit of a back breaker if I recall correctly so that would more than offset the motorway benefit.

And now that I think of it, most of the road from Galway to Limerick is motorway now as well..

What say you?

Dead right. Route 3 is 100% the easiest route.

-Corkie-

I never use sat nav unless I was in a strange town that I didnt know and I was looking for a specific street or landmark. I often put it use it on routes I drive regular and it wants to send you all over the place..

slimjimmc

Sat Navs take the fun out of following misdirected/vague road signs, getting lost and trying to find your way to your destination using raw instinct and skills such as navigating by the sun, then the stars and then sun when it rises again. Some people blame mobile phones (easy to phone for directions), I blame those damned Sat Navs

Our man in Havana

It is more fun to use a sextant.

Top Dog

99% of the time the sat-nav we use is in mute mode. Only use it for speedo and rough estimate of time & distance left to destination ... if I can be bothered to set it in the first place.

whippet

well this week is the first time I've had the need for a satnav properly in France.

I've had a tomtom for years and used it occasionally to find a street in an unfamiliar part of town or the likes.

But my new motor has a built-in satnav with TMC (traffic mgt channel) and dynamic routes. Which have proved to be a total life saver this week.

We arrived in Roscoff, two families and two cars. The brother had his garmin (a few years old) and I had my factory installed.

Google maps gave a travel time of approx 8 hours.

our journey took just over the 8 hours, thanks to a couple of automatic route diversions by the SatNav based on traffic updates etc. i considered ignoring them but decided that it would be worth seeing what it was like.

We landed in our destination and no sign of my brother ... two hours later he arrived, got caught in some mental traffic along the way which he couldn't really reroute on the fly.

Well chuffed with the guidance the satnav gave me ..

Berty

Top Dog wrote: »

99% of the time the sat-nav we use is in mute mode. Only use it for speedo and rough estimate of time & distance left to destination ... if I can be bothered to set it in the first place.

+1, mine is purely for ETA unless I'm in Dublin.

n97 mini

It used to be the case a few years ago that if you wanted a route from Cork to Dublin many satnav devices would tell you to get the ferry to France, drive to Calais, ferry to Dover, drive to Holyhead and get the ferry over.

Simple reason was the maps just didn't have any roads in Ireland outside the cities as they hadn't been surveyed by Navteq or TeleAtlas.

Ordnance Survey Ireland have never sold to or shared data with the satnav manufacturers, another thing on a long list of things that needs to be sorted out in this country. The US Ordnance Survey is also funded by the tax-payer and this provides all its data for free to whoever wants it.