Wednesday, 25 March 2009

Man follows satnav to edge of a precipice

BMW driver in West Yorkshire emulates my example and for his sins gets charged with driving without due care and attention. A better charge would be "undue trust and inappropriate perseverence".

BBC Video report

UK Satnav GPS black spots identifed

UK political party the Liberal Democrats has published a list of the worst locations in the country for satnav errors.

Fom the Telegraph:

"In 2006, the Government promised to update the law on satnav systems.

"It promised to ensure that the devices did not encourage "rat-running" or give illegal advice to the user.

"But, according to Mr Baker, nothing has been done. 'The rise in the use of satnav devices has led to a doubling of the number of large vehicles hitting rail bridges.

"'This has the potential to be extremely dangerous. The Government must act to make satnav devices safer for large vehicles.

"'The Government promised to look at this problem over two years ago, but has completely failed to act,'" he added."

Not really surprising -- it's hard to see what could be done to fix this.

Monday, 26 January 2009

Lost in California

"Garmin sells a simple and reliable device. Unfortunately, it doesn't relieve you of the responsibility for using your brain."

CNET's Charles Cooper tells a familiar tale
.

Thursday, 23 October 2008

Heavy Trucks Arbitraging the Country Lane System Suffer the Fate of All Short Sellers

Cotswold villagers have finally lost patience with truck drivers arbitraging maps using satnav to exploit short cuts through country lanes and are
banning them from the area.

Wednesday, 1 October 2008

Cornish village councillors take an enlightened approach

Residents of a Cornish village have released a map of satnav-vulnerable trouble spots which lorry drivers can download to update their databases.

BBC News video link

Wednesday, 5 December 2007

New York Times Discovers SatNav Errors

News of the phenomenon spreads to a country where strangely little is heard of it -- presumably because the roads are so big and the network so geometric that it is a novel phenomenon.

It's certainly true that satnav errors are essentally a characteristic of small rural roads (or roads taht turn out to be paths or fords...).

“We’ve heard some very hilarious stories where people just blindly follow the sat nav instructions,” said Vince Yearley, a spokesman for the Institute of Advanced Motorists, using British shorthand for “satellite navigation.” “Like if the sat nav says, ‘Drive into this muddy field,’ they think, ‘That’s weird,’ but they do it anyway.”

Link