Roadsigns don't do "find alternative route" , and sat navs don't require xray vision when stuck behind/beside large vehicles.
I agree for the most part, however I do find it handy to have a readout of time and distance remaining. Especially since it lets us give Owen a reasonalbly accurate ETA when heading to the in-laws.
I am amused by people who completely give up any working knowledge of where they're going when they use sat-nav. But I also occasionally catch myself doing the same!
Also yeah, alternative routes and automatic traffic avoidance is cool.
I couldn't agree more on that, I do often use it for the ETA reason.
PB : That's very true also, but I don't often want to deviate.
I find too many people decide that they don't need to look at road signs on junctions and follow the sat nav..... which is a little bit slow and hasn't updated quick enough.
That's got me thinking - since most satnavs these days seem to come with 3G built in, I wonder if there'd be some way to have them automatically show a Street View image when approaching complex junctions?
On my most recent journey, I went the wrong way twice.
First time, I followed the sat nav's "take the third exit" and went back the same way I came (because it was counting a bit of pavement as an exit), which I obviously wouldn't have done if I was paying attention to road signs.
Realised the mistake before I made it, but wasn't thinking straight (my car was doing stupid things) and I still trusted the satnav. Fortunately it wasn't too far back to a previous roundabout, and I turned around and came back and went the right way.
Second time, following road signs for a "simple" route, I missed the bit where the M25 splits off to the left, and not being in lane 1/2 results in finding yourself on an A/B road going towards Hastings. :S
That time, I pulled over once it was safe, turned my Satnav on, and was guided back on course - probably could have managed it with road signs, but much nicer having someone talking to you, reassuring you that you're not going to get shot in the eye by a Norman.
But in both cases paying attention to the roads and signs would've stopped both things happening?
I suspect there's Google and copyright nonsense that might prevent that, except on Androids, which is probably a rather low percentage.
For roundabouts, it's generally satellite view which is more useful. Street View road overlays always seem to be pointing in the wrong direction, and too awkward to actually get to a useful position with.
I've also been pondering recently how long we get arrows drawn on the road to point the way - possibly not far off with Augmented Reality starting to gather momentum.
Also wondered if there might be a networked thing, so you can see where other cars are trying to go, and avoid getting cut up (or cutting someone up)... though there's obviously bad sides to having inter-car communications which might prevent that from being implemented.
No, because what I forgot to write in the second bit is that I had no idea the road was going to split in two (and that I would have wanted the left part of it), and the reason I didn't see the sign was that I was distracted by an idiot driver.
A Sat Nav would have said "keep left" and "in #distance#, take the exit" and stuff that would have better prepared me.
Having a (working) satnav AND paying attention to road signs is sensible - relying on just one of the two means mistakes are more likely when you don't know where you are/going.
Nope, although I was thinking more of a windscreen HUD thing.
Do you think self-driving cars will actually become a reality?
I think I'd expect too many people opposed to them, so unless the government forced a law through, I'm not sure how likely it is.
...hmm, is this dragging Caer's thread completely off topic, or has he found something he's happy with now? :S
But surely there would've been multiple signs showing the split for a short distance before hand.
Either way, yes using both properly is definitely better than one or the other. I tend to know/expect what the sat nav is going to say before it happens anyway based on earlier signs. Though knowing how many miles till the junction you need is nice since it stops me junction counting.
No no, I have gleaned what I wished to know, and have vented cathartically, and this new thread direction is most interesting.
And yes, I do think self-driving cars will become a reality, but the biggest obstacles will be political and social, not technological. There was an interesting series of articles on Ars Technica about this not so long ago.
I would be sad to have to ride in self-driving cars and would resist such a change
Well I know I certainly enjoy driving.
same, I enjoy driving and would want to do it myself
Not too late there at all :$
