Sat Navs and going the wrong way

Spook_ie

How wrong can you go with a sat nav when commuting?

http://news.sky.com/story/1217426/cyclist-causes-chaos-on-m25-rush-hour-ride

I know when I brought my first sat nav years ago that I had it set for the shortest route and decided to take a trip to Clara Lara in Wicklow with the kids, so of course it took me by the shortest route right across the Wicklow Mountains on some ( what can only be described ) as goat tracks, definately shortest but took about 2 hours longer

Plenty of reports of drivers following directions onto railway lines, here's a recent one.

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/10978787.Car_dumped_on_railway_line_at_Crawley/
A driver abandoned their car on a train track last night.
The blue car was dumped in High Street, Crawley, at 9.50pm.
People on Facebook are claiming the driver might have taken a wrong turn on their SatNav, although this has not been confirmed.

a slightly older story

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/7193884.stm
A takeaway delivery driver caused train delays after he misunderstood sat-nav directions and drove onto a railway line in Suffolk. The foreign student, 26, turned onto the tracks instead of a small road just after a level crossing at Oulton Broad.
His car then got stuck between a cattle grid and track, Suffolk Police said.

Shedite27

I find the biggest problem in Dublin being Google maps not knowing where no right turns are in force, and some roads (like Earlsfort Terrace) which is bus only.

Five Lamps

There is good reason for sat navs to be banned in car. They are a complete distraction to drivers. Some drivers don't rely so much on them that they don't even have a rough idea where they are headed.

Losty Dublin

Unless yours is up to date and use some common sense then they are not far from worthless.

A taxi driver I knew had one. One evening he picked up a fare that was going to Adamstown, the lay out of which neither he or passenger knew so they lashed it into the device. It's mapping software hadn't got most of Adamstown loaded up on it spent 10 minute telling him that he was driving through a field and needed to turn around.

Another tale I heard concerned a driver who decided to use the locator for the nearest garage. He patiently followed the orders until he was told that the garage was on his left and duly crashed into the gates of an apartment block, it being on the site of the long closed forecourt

Taxis are not the only ones who over rely on them; bus drivers have been known to foul up with them as well....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-402282/Pensioners-stranded-hours-sat-nav-sends-coach-narrow-country-lane.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1294615/Driver-relying-satnav-did-low-bridge-tore-school-bus-roof-walks-free-court-road-ban.html


However, this woman wins the award for the most lost of all

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2262149/Belgian-woman-67-picking-friend-railway-station-ends-Zagreb-900-miles-away-satnav-disaster.html

mrbike

People just seem to switch off their brain and blindly follow the directions, which can lead to this tragic case in Spain...

[GPS directs driver to death in Spain's largest reservoir]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/oct/04/gps-driver-death-spanish-reservoir

coylemj

Losty Dublin wrote: »

Another tale I heard concerned a driver who decided to use the locator for the nearest garage. He patiently followed the orders until he was told that the garage was on his left and duly crashed into the gates of an apartment block, it being on the site of the long closed forecourt

Even paying for the most recent map updates doesn't protect you from that problem, TeleAtlas (TomTom) and Navteq (Garmin) are hopelessly slow in updating their maps to reflect changes to filling stations.

Windsor Motors in Deansgrange opposite the cemetery used to operate a filling station and convenience store before they demolished the place and built a flashy new showroom. However it took Navteq about 7 years to remove it from their maps as an Esso filling station despite multiple e-mails from me.

Some people are bloody idiots, simple as that. We got caught out when a high bridge over a river was shut but rather than drive off the edge like the satnav suggested we decided not to ditch the car. Took a bit of driving before the satnav suggested an alternative route but it was better than ending up in the newspaper.