Much has been made of the potential failure of GPS systems. One presumes that it’s a slow news day. I mean, Gaddafi hasn’t yet bitten the dust and despite the plethora of journos talking to various folk, nothing is actually happening that is different from yesterday, so, I guess, the failure of our SatNavs is a fallback when they run out of hot air or two boring people wandering around doing nothing much.
Today the Telegraph discusses how we would all manage without our technology – in particular, our SatNavs. Well, I guess we’ll do what we did before and use maps, ask directions or navigate via dead reckoning (something I had to do in Paris recently and was pleasantly surprised that I could still do it). It’s worth pointing out that the article uses words like “could”, so I don’t think I’ll be hitting the panic button just yet.
Much as I like using a SatNav, I could manage without it if I had to. What is amusing is the predictable comments form the anti brigade who deem their use to be an indication of low intelligence. Such comments usually take the line that maps are good enough for me so you should use them too.
Look, I like maps. I can spend hours poring over them. But I also find the SatNav a useful tool when navigating unfamiliar cities. When in heavy traffic in a major city with multiple lanes and junctions, a map is about as useful as an origami bomb shelter. You simply don’t have the time – or space – to pull over and get the atlas out. A SatNav is a boon in such situations. On the open road, they are less useful. That said, the camera alerts are helpful, so even if I’m not actually using it to navigate, I’ll have it on in passive mode.
SatNavs are just tools. Like the maps and atlases in the glove compartment, they are there to be used as the user sees fit. And, frankly, a map when motorcycling is always awkward. I recall the time many moons ago when my map of Portugal was whisked away by the wind and deposited in the Douro. The SatNav has never managed that feat. Also, I can use the intercom to listen to the voice prompts, allowing me to concentrate on the traffic. It’s a tool. A damned useful one when travelling to somewhere I’ve not been before. For those who don’t like them and don’t want them, do what I do regarding my complete indifference to such things as Gameboys, Playstations and Wiis; don’t buy one.
If only there was some form of European alternative to GPS. You know, just in case…
I’m supposing that the “dire warnings” are for the types of people who, were they any more stupid would require watering twice a week. The types who slavishly follow the SAT-NAV instructions without paying heed to things like road signs.
I drive the same route to and from work each week. My sat-nav serves as a traffic management aid so I know whether to continue on the M5 up to the M6 or take the M42 turn-off and for warning where the “safety” cameras are located.
What do you pour over the maps? Tea, coffee, boiling oil? Or do you save the latter for sarcastic spelling mistake spotters?
Piss-poor proof reading. Corrected.
I’d never trust a satnav. Bad experience in rallying with a halda.
Can’t say I’ve had that. The odd bit of weird routing, but paying attention avoids any serious problems.
I think the issue is less the ‘I can find my own way, I have a sense of direction’ and more of the ‘can the ambulance driver get to the person having the stroke’? Or ‘can the fire engine reach the burning building’? as local knowledge is no longer necessarily a requirement for those sorts of jobs given regional control centres can manage a multi-county forces.
If anything takes out part of the satellite grid there could be big problems for the organisations that already rely on it and those could be greater than just you getting lost in a city.
My car has a built in system that requires a new DVD update. At £300 it shal continue to require.
I still have a map in the glovebox and check routes on streetfinder before leaving, writing the basics on a bit of paper. This usually gets me within a mile, then I switch on the sat-nav if unsure.
Before sat-nav, I was a door to door carpet cleaner for a while. Manchester, Stockport, Leeds, Bradford, York, Hull – I had a boot full of A to Z’s. It was hell.