GPS systems
Posted by: fred
19th Jun 2009 11:47pm
I think that GPS units are very clever things and that they will take off as an easy way to find your way around. Not that expensive and very handy to use. I travelled form Melb to Cairns and back useing different routes each way and it took me as direct as possible to every address that I entered.
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Comments 40
Lastcardlouis
On a very recent Brisbane-Mittagong and return trip we used the satnav (with rather old mapping) to wander around places like Coffs, Port Macquarie and Newcastle and to get back onto the highway without actually having a clue where we were. The iPhone is much better for providing up to date mapping, so a combo of the two makes it easy - for me. My wife's not too flash with technology but she's a good driver, so I do a lot of the navigating.
An earlier post referred to things changing around Brisbane - how true! We have new tunnels and a couple of spaghetti junctions that are guaranteed to baffle locals and visitors alike. Add to that the appalling quality of signage and I really feel sorry for tourists!
celiak
GPS is so good as i do not have god direction skills and without it i would never get anywhere. Its on my phone which is even more convient
PGS
It seems Parramatta to Glebe can't be driven - according to my GPS it's an 'invalid trip'.
mike
love cats
Anonymous
We Purchased a new car last year and opted out of the gps in exchange for a 10 inch drop down DVD player with wireless headphones for the kids. BEST DECISION I EVER MADE!! I just use my iPhone for a gps- had to take a trip to the middle of woop woop had no idea where it was, threw the adress into the iPhone and walla! It even had this little dot ( that was us) that copied our every move to the exact point, and best of all- the kids were quiet the whole time. Lol
wojo12
Tip for all you Sat Nav users - DO NOT mark your home address with something like "Home". It gives any thief a quick way of finding your potentially unoccupied house, especially if has has stolen the car as well.
Anonymous
I agree, I have Navman MY85XLT and recently moved to the city. My GPS has not failed me yet. It remebers places that I have been, gives clear instructions and even tells me what lane to be in. Life is so much easier.
Kessa1959
They are good to a degree but you still need to have an idea of where you are travelling and not rely totally on them as I have been in vehicles where they have
* tried to take us across a river where there was no bridge
* take us on a bi-pass where we weren't able to exit
* try to take us on a road which didn't exist
They have also been known to cause accidents with drivers taking their eyes off the road to look at the screen.
Trushka
I agree - they're good up to a point. I did a survey over six weeks for a university who was researching a particular brand. I used the GPS every time - a couple of times it tried directing me to go round the block - but on a couple of other occasions, it was great to get to an unknown location. One gript - you had to pay $12.50 quarterly to update the maps. No way!
PGS
Follow a GPS to the letter & you'll probably wind up miles from where you should be.
Mine claims the quickest way to Hornsby from Parramatta is via Penrith.
Parramatta to Glebe is an 'invalid trip'
No Right Turn signs apparently mean 'Turn Right Here' - the signs just have the wrong wording.
If you REALLY want fun - try using one in Canberra's suburbs. The screen on mine you could not possibly follow. Poor thing near blew a valve. :-)
I always keep directory in the car.
smiley
there not as up to date as they should be. In brisbane the other week following the gps it got us lost as they are always doing new things in brisbane and ended up next to the brisbane river tell us to keep going straight had to laugh as it was funny we cant go straight or we wuld have landed in the river lol. we ended up getting to where we needed to go with some help from some people.
smiley
there not as up to date as they should be. In brisbane the other week following the gps it got us lost as they are always doing new things in brisbane and ended up next to the brisbane river tell us to keep going straight had to laugh as it was funny we cant go straight or we wuld have landed in the river lol. we ended up getting to where we needed to go with some help from some people.
ben
Gps is way way to go as it cuts your fuel costs to a bear minimum. In Dunedin The City buses have it fitted ,so thay can check to see if a bus has left early or is speeding.
CAT17
All these gagets in cars! DVD players for the kids, GPS for the big ones, mobile phones, ipods, etc. Don't you think it is very distracting? I wonder if some of this modern technology might be contributing to the carnage on our roads. How can a driver,particularly an inexperienced one, concentrate on the road with all the distractions?
Anonymous
i agree and they tend to be very handy when one just wants to experiment with the region without getting lost .
Jamo
Not for me your fancy gizmos! I prefer to 'follow my nose' , and if that involves the odd geographical misadventure then so be it. Mind you, it did come in handy recently on a driving holiday in France! Some of the little towns in Provence were a tad difficult to negotiate. A friend of mine swears by them, claiming that his GPS saved him 15 minutes on the trip to his holiday house at the beach!
Jeollie
I have (had a GPS unit, my daughter who has moved to Adelaide for school has now taken possession! So I have invested in another!) but I couldn't have done the travelling I have done over the last few years, without it. I have travelled mostly to take my children to different sporting events as we are in the country and they have qualified for state events in the city, 5 hours away. It definetly gave me an unreal confidence while I was driving, mainly in the city but also when I was travelling to somewhere I had never been before. But also, I always like to know where I am going so I always look at maps for the "big" picture before leaving on any trip. So the maps and street directorys will always have a place in the car but the GPS units are one of the best things ever, for allowing me to be an independent women driver!!
mermaid
My GPS was a gift little did I realise it needed to be updated and the costs involved. I still refer to the street directory from time to time a clear indicator of how technology is yet to meet growing demands of new estates. My partner believes I'm missing the point, the updates were generated to generate income after all we live in an evolving technological world and at the blink of an eye the iphone becomes reundant lol...
gsdat
alot more expensive than the old map book that only cost about $25 yearly where to upgrade most GPS maps it is approx $180 per year
judy3351
I find that my gps is very good, I travell a lot from the SE of SA along the coorong
and its such a releif to watch it to see where the bends of the road are to see if it will be safe to pass
david
fantastic extra for cars.no more road directories.can never get lost
Suzanne279
useful yes, helpful, probably not. Not helpful by taking alll the way around to get to your location,,i'd rather call a friend sometimes,, lol
manx
I hate the 'stuck on the window' models. Will be more interested as they become a standard feature and part of the car dashboard
matt
I agree they are clever , But are sometimes very confusing .
Lani6
I'm a little old-fashioned: when I have a passenger, and we're driving somewhere new, I like having them looking at a road map.
But it is highly inconvinient to, when you're driving solo, have to pull over to consult the map.
Has anyone found gps units to be too distracting while driving?
david
i agree.i have gps and find it great.although at time i think it is a bit dangerous,taking your eyes off the road to check where you are.but in a good drvers hand it is a very valuable extra.david
erogenius
"they will take off as an easy way to find your way around."
Mate, I've got news for you.They 'took off' YEARS ago as an easy way to find your way around.
pothum
This is supposed to be the quick and easy. No-one seems to rely on knowledge anymore. Is it really so easy though? Seems to me it creates more problems and limits knowledge.
Macca54
A Gps is a useful tool but thats all it is.. I still find it faster and easier to just too at a map of the area i need to go to and take a bearing off a main rd. usually just print off a map from google maps and its much better so far.
shachah7
GPS are not idiot proof but generally are very useful in guiding you to your destination. I feel they are environmentally friendly also as they can be programmed to find the most economical or direct routes.
Bellxchat
It seems that GPS and associated gadetry, like all technology, works best with some human input. We are not quite redundant, yet!
shachah7
they've taken off for a while now, no?
lpullman
The original post was from the middle of July last year. Still a little late, but they weren't ubiquitous then
Helen
I'll stick to the good ol' street directory.
woolysmissus
I think they are useful, but you should always have an idea where you are going and not rely solely on them. I was in a taxi and the route the GPS gave him was so wrong. It had him taking a 3K 'round the block' kind of route when he only had to cross the street, literally! Luckily I was watching it and sent him straight.
wojo12
A GPS is the most accurate location finder on this earth. You are referring to a Satillite Navigation (Sat-Nav) device which is a different piece of equipment altogether. The GPS inside a Sat Nav device only tells the Sat Nav where you are. The programming of the device and up-to-dateness of the maps are what you are all complaining about.
Graeme
My TomTom is always beside me wehre ever I go and as a bus driver its so good it takes the stress out of driving. Ofcourse its not without its faults but then compare that to a street directory or map! how do you read it whilst moving? they were great in there time, but you need a navigator to read them for you, then what do yuo do when the road is un-named or where there is a street on the map which has never been made and you have a gully between you and the rest of street? Whatever you use you will always need common sense!
lpullman
My complaint with Google was the opposite: we took a long route out along the coast and it took some convincing to keep it on the B-roads. The major sticking point was getting it to use the Queeenscliff - Sorento ferry, but once I'd put enough waypoints in it worked like a charm.
If someone on the other side of the world using only freely available road data can manage that for somewhere as obscure as SA and Victoria then GPS's have no excuse for getting it wrong.
Having used both, I think a laptop and a decent mapping app are far better than a GPS. But there is no substitute for someone actually reading the map it provides :-)
Dave
I Agree, for a long trip it pays to pre-check the route, as mine will sometimes try to give me a quick route along a non existant road, or it might find a shorter road that winds at 70km/hr, but misses the freeway cruising at 110km/hr.
I have mine set on auto re-route, which allows me to take what I know is a better road, and it will then go from there.
lpullman
Heh, heh, you live in Adelaide do you? Seems like the taxi drivers here live by the damn things and retire as soon as they have clue where major suburbs are.
I did Adelaide to Melbourne using road book made from Google maps. The only place it got confused in 1,000km was the entrance to the Mornington Freeway.
But the GPS we had along was bloody useless. The moment you got off the main road (and we did a lot) it kept trying to send you backtracking. They are a good thing if you use them as an electronic street map, but always check the route it before you rely on it. Playing around with several we've had some corkers without really trying to confuse it.