GPS, don't like um

[annageckos]

Quote:
I like google maps. But mapquest sucks. I was looking for directions to Washington Township in NJ, had the zip and everything right. Mapquest tried to send me to Washington DC.

I like looking at the map on google, seeing all the roads and turns, it really helps me.

 

[fosterchick]

well everyone complains when they look for my house the GPS is wrong. I live at number 12 and the GPS say 99. Also there is a road at the end of my street that has been deserted for 40 or more years. the trees on it look like they could be 100 (?) years old. The GPS tells the people to go down it all the time. I love the look on there face when they ask for directions and then we tell them that that is the road they are looking for.

 

[Stacykins]

I use my GPS as a guide, rather than my sole source for directions. I check maps on the route first, but use the GPS while driving. It helps if I come across a detour or whatever that the map didn't note, so it keeps me from getting lost. I don't focus on the GPS like some people do, I just listen to what it has to say. Sometimes if I know part of the way, I go my way even if the GPS yells at me to go another, hah.

 

[kareninthesun]

never put your home address in!!!! use a nearby spot instead. there has been a rash of subtle vehicle break-ins that are nearly indistinguishable where either nothing is stolen or something little, bizzare is taken. each one of these vehicles had a gps unit. the thieves simply got the home addresses and waited for the opportunity.

my gps is a love/hate relationship worstened if my hubby is driving "somewhere" he's driven ,been a passenger in a car, or flew over within his lifetime. typically, like Moses whom never conferred with a map, he'd insist everything looked familiar. I always google Thomas Brothers (never mapquest...shuddering...). Our adventure starts with him lost, we checking out new areas, him muttering that maybe we should use the gps. i turn the unit on. we backtrack for a while, then halfway there,(usually in a valley or too close to the airport or on a day of the week which ends with a "y") the signal.is.lost. there's a 15 minute window where hubby gently cheerleads himself in not needing guidance. ends with a wistful commentary of the simplity of maps (he's seemed to forgotten the stacks.of.unfoldable maps the size of tablecloths and the 300 paged books where our destinations were on the cusps of the right hand corners of page 98, right top of 22,right top of 231, middle of 63, and adhered to a melted Lifesaver spewed by a now grown child on the folded second to the last page). This is when I whip out a freshly printed, accurate map.

gps's should be called P.A.L.: pack a lunch...

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

I like my GPS. I dont use it locally but do as a moving map when traveling. I can also turn off the beaten path to see what I can find an know it will get me back to the big road when I am ready.



As for errors... My road was addresses in reverse an the road names for the whole county were wrong. I told Google maps about it an they fixed both issues for me. I just clicked report an error on there map an now I can have people Google me an it will take them strait to me.

 

[quercus21]

We do a lot of hiking (bush whacking) and never used a gps. It is always done with a compass, map and being able to read the terrain. So far, we have never been lost and usually return with 50' of our starting point.
On road trips, maps and/or directions all the way.

Enjoy

 

[mandelyn]

Technology is not perfect. I've been on so many road trips though... I have a mental atlas in my brain now. I can tell when she's wrong. She gets so mad at me when I make my own detours! Well sometimes she recalculates and agrees with me. Other times... it takes 20 miles to convince her.

Ever since she took me through the scariest neighborhood in Baltimore... I don't trust her. She can only tell you so much about the road ahead.

Ours is built into the dash board, came with the car. First thing I did was shut her up and buy an updated road atlas... it's $400 to update her. She's generally accurate, but when I call people I always ask for a land mark.. what color is the house, what's at the corner where the turn is... just in case she freaks out at the end and gives me the "Road data not confirmed" message.

 

[mom'sfolly]

I love my GPS, especially the "go home" feature. This can be reset. It is great when you are driving in an unfamiliar place and want to get back to a hotel or something like that. What I wish my GPS had:

an avoid ghetto option
a map/route learning function that if you drive somewhere frequently enough, that isn't currently mapped, it will automatically add it to the GPS map
a preferred route option, that it adds after you have taken the same roads several time.

My GPS only see roads. It doesn't learn. It can't know that the closest route out of my neighborhood has an extremely dangerous left turn (more than one fatality dangerous), so it always routes me that way. I know better. I wish the GPS could learn my preferred route. Yes, I know how to get out of my neighborhood, but if I'm going someplace new, I put the address in the GPS in the driveway, not while I'm on the road.

 

[bobcatridge]

There are times that the Gps is very helpful -like if you are in an unfamiliar city. Don't try to get to our house with it - the roads out here aren't correct and the Gps will send you down the mountain cross country. Even google doesn't have it right. I can find our house on google but don't think you are going to put our address in and find us. Several years ago we were refinancing and one of the loan people was raving about our house when I finally realized he was looking at the wrong house. Our house is nice but nothing like the one higher up on the mountain.

Just had to make one more Gps comment. Our first experience with Gps was in 1997 in a BMW in Europe. I still remember my husband driving in Rome with the Gps saying "if possible make a u-turn...recalculating" as we missed one turn after another. We joked that soon it would say "if possible get a new driver". I have to admit we had some fun with that Gps. We once put it on"least use of highways" and we went on a wonderful adventure through French vineyards.

 

[mandelyn]

"Avoid Ghetto"..... yeah, needed that option in Baltimore and D.C.