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Syntax Error
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This seems to be the case in ever increasing numbers, with the number of reports of motorists & lorry drivers in particular going the wrong way up bridal paths etc.

This is shocking, especially with lorry drivers' as they drive for a living & you'd expect them to be a bit more road aware.

The advent of Sat-Nav seems to have dimininished a lot of drivers' abilties to think for themselves & use a bit of common sense at times

People just seem to input a postcode or street name & just follow the voice prompts, even of it flies in the face of what your eyes are seeing. Eek

What is it with so many people that they seem to lose all rational thought because of Sat-Nav?

I'm fortunate, as I don't have Sat-Nav in any of my cars it would seem; The A-Z is still king in my life at the moment!!! Razz


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barky
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sat nav is a tool we simply don't need - whatever happened to 'if lost ask for directions' or plan ahead??
can be handy for tips sometimes if you are lost & can't be bothered to pull over & look @ a map


why is it when I stand on my head that sometimes, just sometimes ......?
 
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Bamford
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They can be a godsend but generally i use a map.
Noxide took hours, to do a 90 minute journey, due to sat-nav!


COSFIELD. 380 BHP/612 KGS. = STUNNING!
 
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b308
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Luckily I have a good sense of direction, but even so S-N could be useful at times - the errors on destination are usually the user's rather than the satnav itself...

As for Lorries and low bridges... there's an add-on which costs all of about £20 flagging all low bridges, etc, in the UK but most lorry drivers seen not to have the money to pay for it... however their insurance bills will soon be rising as Network Rail are now claiming and delays run into tens of thousands of pounds!
 
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Sulphur Man
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Sat Nav is a boon for haulage, couriers, minicabs, etc. Sat nav which is constantly updating with traffic incidents, road closures, etc. has clear benefits too.

I agree, the problem is too many people have replaced it for common sense, putting too much trust in it, using it for simple routes they would have researched before, but are now too lazy to do so.

It's a sorry state of affairs when someone who lives in Salisbury programs their Sat Nav for directions to say Winchester, which would be clearly signposted clearly anyway.
 
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Cal El
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quote:
Originally posted by Syntax Error:
This seems to be the case in ever increasing numbers, with the number of reports of motorists & lorry drivers in particular going the wrong way up bridal paths etc.

This is shocking, especially with lorry drivers' as they drive for a living & you'd expect them to be a bit more road aware.

The advent of Sat-Nav seems to have dimininished a lot of drivers' abilties to think for themselves & use a bit of common sense at times

People just seem to input a postcode or street name & just follow the voice prompts, even of it flies in the face of what your eyes are seeing. Eek

What is it with so many people that they seem to lose all rational thought because of Sat-Nav?

I'm fortunate, as I don't have Sat-Nav in any of my cars it would seem; The A-Z is still king in my life at the moment!!! Razz


SE, you're a poster after my own heart! Wink

You've just highlighted one of my biggest bugbears.

I live in a Satnav nighmare zone, where people regularly get lost because, as they drive somewhere that is obviously not supposed to be driven!

These bozos just plug in their Tom-Tom's & disengage their brains! Mad

Satnav has definitely reduced the capacity of a lot of drivers to think for themselves!

It's frightening; the next generation of drivers is going to have zero road & direction awareness! Mad


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Boig
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If you'd have said to someone as little as a dozen years ago that soon, cars will have a complete set of maps for the whole of Western Europe stored on something the size of a Compact Disc/fag packet that display in a little TV screen in your car along with a pleasant sounding lady (or angry German woman if you happen to drive a Mercedes) giving you directions ....... they'd most likely say "Yeah, right so the car somehow knows where it is does it"? To which you would reply: Actually yes, it looks up into space and asks a satellite ..... the person would have fallen off their chair laughing at you.

So I have to take issue with the grumblers; Sat Nav is a work of genius.

During the industrial revolution, the Luddites were up in arms; machines were taking over and anyone who wasn't killed by getting stuck in one was resigned to a life of mechanical servitude. Now cometh its technological procreate and their miserablist descendants crawl out of the woodwork complining TomTom have ruined map reading.

What on earth?? .... Who in their right mind would choose to waste precious life-hours pouring over something as mind numingly dull as a map when a hundred quid lets you press a couple of buttons and have John Cleese tell you how to get from Aberdeen to Andalucia. They have their faults, I got rather over-familiar with Trafford Park recently and a few lorries hit railway bridges. So what? That's the price we pay for the age we live in. These little gizmos get better every five minutes and in a few years they'll drive the car for you so you don't have to waste further precious life-hours wondering whether the pint you had with yer pie and chips will collect you six points (do not pass go, do not collect £200) under Nanny NuLabs Nu rules.

'k maps. Life's for living.


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thebenster
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haha good one. Big Grin
SN is generally pretty handy IMO and in most cases improves safety as i did have a tendency to try and read maps and drive. Not clever.
 
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sunsurfer
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I agree. Sat Nav is a godsend only way I will try to drive through London or any other major City. They are getting better all the time but they still have an annoying tendency to direct you along sheep tracks when in Norfolk, Cornwall or the Lake District. Best in that case to ignore them until they calculate a new route.

Our sat nav insisted that Shrewsbury was a farm gate miles from any houses and buildings in the Shropshire countryside...

Well maybe the sat nav is right and the real Shrewsbury has been vapourised by Aliens.
 
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Bamford
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Shrewsbury's traffic system is a nightmare, fullstop!


COSFIELD. 380 BHP/612 KGS. = STUNNING!
 
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petrol_blue
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I find them incredibly infuriating mainly because of their sheer stupidity. It will not locate a street with the postcode which I know it is in, instead it will tell me it's in a different postcode?! Sometimes they'll take you a seemingly bizaar route even though you know a much quicker one, they don't know low bridges or weight limits for road making them difficult to rely on for coach driving or lorries. I use mine as a guide only and also as it has built in traffic master through RDS. Last time I got stuck in traffic it only notified me of a delay once I'd already got stuck in it, it contiually showed a 2 minute delay when i'd been stationary for 7 minutes. Utterly hopeless!


Air Medic - Mobile Automotive Air Conditioning Service
 
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Bamford
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Foreign lorries can end up in villages with roads too narrow for the vehicle.
It often costs a fortune to recover them, also.


COSFIELD. 380 BHP/612 KGS. = STUNNING!
 
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crankcase
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Sat Nav is a replacement for a map and attempting to figure out where you are on it. Anyone who has to even pose the question whether its a replacement for common sense lacks it.

People have being doing stoopid stuff before satnav. Razz
 
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Syntax Error
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quote:
Originally posted by Boig:
If you'd have said to someone as little as a dozen years ago that soon, cars will have a complete set of maps for the whole of Western Europe stored on something the size of a Compact Disc/fag packet that display in a little TV screen in your car along with a pleasant sounding lady (or angry German woman if you happen to drive a Mercedes) giving you directions ....... they'd most likely say "Yeah, right so the car somehow knows where it is does it"? To which you would reply: Actually yes, it looks up into space and asks a satellite ..... the person would have fallen off their chair laughing at you.

So I have to take issue with the grumblers; Sat Nav is a work of genius.

During the industrial revolution, the Luddites were up in arms; machines were taking over and anyone who wasn't killed by getting stuck in one was resigned to a life of mechanical servitude. Now cometh its technological procreate and their miserablist descendants crawl out of the woodwork complining TomTom have ruined map reading.

What on earth?? .... Who in their right mind would choose to waste precious life-hours pouring over something as mind numingly dull as a map when a hundred quid lets you press a couple of buttons and have John Cleese tell you how to get from Aberdeen to Andalucia. They have their faults, I got rather over-familiar with Trafford Park recently and a few lorries hit railway bridges. So what? That's the price we pay for the age we live in. These little gizmos get better every five minutes and in a few years they'll drive the car for you so you don't have to waste further precious life-hours wondering whether the pint you had with yer pie and chips will collect you six points (do not pass go, do not collect £200) under Nanny NuLabs Nu rules.

'k maps. Life's for living.


I agree, I think Sat-Nav is a great idea in essence (not that I've ever used it).

I would just like to think that I wouldn't follow it blindly as so many people seem to do.


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Bamford
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Get a good map!


COSFIELD. 380 BHP/612 KGS. = STUNNING!
 
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ZIL CO
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I use both a traditional map and a SAT NAV.

The traditional map for the general route and the SAT NAV for the detailed parts.

PLUS common sense too no point in taking a forty ton Wagon over a weight limited bridge.
 
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Bamford
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Or under a low bridge.


COSFIELD. 380 BHP/612 KGS. = STUNNING!
 
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ZIL CO
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A forty ton wagon would pass under most bridges, its the load that counts in volume terms, but I know exactly what you are hinting at.

Most of the culprits are the ex eastern block drivers and those who wear the "betz" badges.

Jonny foreigner !
 
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qprdude
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Sat Nav is merely a tool, and like all tools, the operator needs to be competent. That is where the problem lies.


Rover 75 Turbo Diesel intercooler
 
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h3ro
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mate...once u use satnav u wud never use a paper map again..lol!! only ppl who hav never used satnav think paper maps r better..lol!! lol!! ive got a tomtom and think its brillaint..the bird who speaks on it sounds well horney!!..lol!! lol!!
 
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