Thanks, TomTom !

I have read the recent diatribes about the efficacy of TomTom Sat Navs
with some amazement and, often, hilarity.

This weekend I made a return trip of some 400 miles from a rural part of
England to the centre of London and back. This trip took part over
small rural roads, major roads, motorways (freeways) and right through
the centre of London. The outgoing journey meant my arrival in London
coincided with the Friday evening rush-hour and the return journey
started in the comparative quiet of Sunday Morning. At no point in
either journey did my TomTom give me the slightest cause for concern - on
both journeys it helped to drive quickly and efficiently door-to-door.

However, I strongly suspect my journey was enhanced by the following:

1. I appreciate the my TomTom is a driving AID. It is not
intelligent, it cannot think. I follows a set of instructions written
by a programmer from a digital map produced by a cartographer - neither
of whom will ever have seen any of the 100 or so junctions that I was
required to negotiate.

2. My particular model tells me in the top right hand corner the name
and/or number of the road I will be going onto next. I have discovered
another useful driving aid - called traffic/road signs! If I'm in any
doubt about TomTom's instructions I use the road/traffic signs. You see,
I am the intelligent person in my car - not an electronic device.

3. I keep my maps as up to date as possible but realise that no sat nav
can EVER be totally up to date, so I'm not taken by surprise when the
road layout is different from my TomTom. Once again, I use my own
intelligence.

4. TomTom will occasionally say "Right (or Left) Turn Ahead" sometimes
a considerable distance from the turn. This is done to enable me (you)
to position oneself in the correct lane in plenty of time - a really
useful facility particularly in London where the really don't appreciate
you trying to turn left whilst in the right hand lane at a junction.

5. I make sure I have a reasonable idea of roughly where I should be
going when driving into a large city. London has many narrow streets
with tall buildings that block the satellite signal causing my sat nav to
"stutter".

6. If I DO make a wrong turn, then what the hell? My lovely TomTom
will just re-route me back to where I should be going. If this drives
you to distrcaction then perhaps you really shouldn't be driving.

7. And finally, I repeat, any sat nav is a driving aid, it is not
intelligent, it cannot think, it doesn't know they have just made a road
one-way, it cannot take into account other vehicles preventing you
changing lanes - but it DOES require the driver to have a modicum of
intelligence!

Walt

Walt wrote:




cannot think.

It can be designed to be as intelligent as any car driver, and can
have access to much more information that any car driver can have.


There is no need to see them when an accurate map is available.


Its much better if you dont need to use those,
because they can be obscured by other traffic etc.


An electronic device can in fact do a lot better than any
human, most obviously with aircraft blind landing systems.

No reason why that cant be done with a car too.


Thats just plain wrong. If those responsible for changing roads do
update a central database at the time the change is made, and the
owner of the GPS updates the GPS map before leaving, as many
of the latest GPSs can do, they can indeed be totally up to date.

They can even be up to date with short term diversions for road works etc.



Its also done where there is just one lane, so you know ahead of time
where the next turn is and dont get told just before the intersection alone.


And there is no reason why a well designed GPS system cant tell
you precisely which lane you need to be in for a particular turn etc.


Even that is possible to design around with the system able to
use other sources of information on where the car has moved
to when the GPS signal is not available for a short time etc.


intelligent,

It can be much more intelligent than any driver and have much
more information available to it than any driver can ever have.


It can think better than any driver can.


It can with maps that are always up to date.


It can do that too, by observing what the driver is doing.


No it doesnt.

Oh yes it does you fool!

If you blindly follow the instructions given then you are, to say the least,
silly.

The Tom Tom is a driving AID which you can ignore if you wish.

Ray Milne.

says...

.........Good stuff and rubbish snipped


Good grief - what a load of cobblers! I'd hate to be driving behind (or
with) you if you so blindly follow an electronic gizmo!

Score one for Walt's common sense approach.

If I'm in the bush, I use a GPS, BUT - and it's a huge 'BUT' - I ALWAYS
carry map and compass as well. Being army trained, I am very reliable
with map and compass. The GPS is great, and I use it all the time, but
that map and compass is the backstop for when the batteries run out, the
signal is lost, or it drowns or breaks down. And even the map has to be
used with intelligence, using the real, actual terrain one is standing
on as reality, and accepting that the map is a representation only, and
is only as good as the last cartography survey.

And the same approach goes for town or city driving. What you see is
reality. What is on the GPS is a representation only, and a guide, an
aid, and should be used as such.

--

NightStalker