Common sense and GPS?

[JethroB]

Google maps had our plant located on North Moon St. instead of the correct South Moon St. We received many irate calls from nearby property owners complaining about semi trucks trying to turn around on their property. I went through Googles error reporting process and after a few months it got corrected. I was a little impressed.

 

[hube2]

There is a place near me that used to be a village green. There are 5 roads into it that crisscross each other. This green generally gets people lost following their GPS to my house and I have to go out an get them because they tell me they are driving around in circles. I was curious so I used my GPS from a place that would bring me across it. There are several places where multiple roads meet, at one place there is an intersection what appears to be a 3 way fork but is 2 roads exiting at angles off the road you're on. The GPS says to "make a slight left" There are 2 choices that qualify, the left that is the same road and is nearly straight. If you take the left you head off in the wrong direction and the GPS has you make more lefts until you are confronted with the same intersection telling you to "make a slight left". If you never realize that you actually need the center choice and to stay on the road you're on you'll just go round and round forever. I'm generally nice to the people that come to visit, but you'd think that after a couple of circuits they'd try something different.

This is likely the reason that most delivery trucks are late, in addition to the GPS sending them to my neighbors house. I guess I could go on google and see about fixing the second issue... but I think that delivery drivers should learn how to look at the house number signs with the huge numbers that we are required to have around here

 

[k0ua]

If you think about all of the streets, twist, turns, etc... in the U.S., most digital mapping systems are pretty accurate. Lot's more details than paper maps. And you can usually flip to satellite view if you don't believe what the on-screen map is showing. All-in-all, we are a spoiled lot and have it pretty easy.

True that. And for the most part GPS navigation even on a smartphone works pretty well. After all I used it for some time to find peoples houses tucked into all sort of out of the way places in Southwest Missouri to try to sell them Medicare Supplements. Only once in a while would there be a problem and you would have to use common sense. But I think anyone that uses GPS navigation a lot has a story to two to tell.

 

[MossRoad]

True that. And for the most part GPS navigation even on a smartphone works pretty well. After all I used it for some time to find peoples houses tucked into all sort of out of the way places in Southwest Missouri to try to sell them Medicare Supplements. Only once in a while would there be a problem and you would have to use common sense. But I think anyone that uses GPS navigation a lot has a story to two to tell.

I've always used a stand alone GPS until this summer. We let one of our children borrow our car for a few months while her's was getting repaired and left the GPS with that car. So I've been using the GPS on the iPhone all summer. It works pretty well. I like the traffic feature that we don't get on the old GPS unit. But the screen is very small, and seems to give you information right at the time you need it VS it would be nice to know you have to turn more than 2 seconds before you need to make a decision.

 

[k0ua]

I've always used a stand alone GPS until this summer. We let one of our children borrow our car for a few months while her's was getting repaired and left the GPS with that car. So I've been using the GPS on the iPhone all summer. It works pretty well. I like the traffic feature that we don't get on the old GPS unit. But the screen is very small, and seems to give you information right at the time you need it VS it would be nice to know you have to turn more than 2 seconds before you need to make a decision.

Yeah, can't lollygag around, when she says turn, you probably need to be turning.

 

[BackRoad]

Remember reading in the future, every car sold would have GPS.

Nah, that will never happen...

Would never have believed it if they said every BODY over 8 years old will have one!

Followed the GPS in my wife's Acura MDX...it guided us around all 4 leafs of an interstate interchange near Hope PA, then back onto the route we were following originally.

And of course, I HAD to follow it just to be able to say we did it!

 

[Jstpssng]

I've mentioned this before... the only app which I've downloaded to my phone is called "PDFMaps". I can generate (or buy) georeferenced maps and keep track of exactly where I am on the landscape. It's a handy tool, I can make a photomap of an area I want to look at and tell exactly where I am at all times. The downside is that my current phone is an iPhone which doesn't allow me to download from my laptop, so I need to make my map before leaving home, and email it to myself.
I also carry a handheld GPS, and now everybody has been issued a Garmin Inreach which can be synced with a phone so that we can send messages without cell coverage. That last also has an SOS button in case I really get in trouble... not sure if it works and I don't intend to ever find out. So I'm supposed to carry GPS, phone, InReach… yet the one tool that will make me go back to the truck is if I forget my compass.

 

[MossRoad]

Yeah, can't lollygag around, when she says turn, you probably need to be turning.

Recalculating.... :laughing:

 

[sandman2234]

I have been chasing roads for a while. I have a $585 truck GPS on the dash and still use my cell. I look at the routes before I leave, to see where it is taking me. Got to have a little common sense when you drive one of these rigs...
David from jax

 

[Deere Dude]

i have a lifetime updatable GPS and love it and trust it most times and the cell phone saved my bacon more than once. But, I never leave on a trip or just out lollygagging without a paper state map and I make sure I have a US magazine version of state maps in both vehicles, and used them.

 

[MossRoad]

I tend to look at a map of my planned trip on the computer and see if I can memorize the route before I leave the house. I also look at a detailed area of my destination so I have some idea of what I'm getting into. Then I see if the GPS will take me on the same route. It's kind of a hobby.

A kind of interesting thing happened to me on my last trip, however. We went to Oklahoma a few months ago, to see one of our kids in Stillwater. This is probably only the third time I've taken a trip West much past St. Louis by car. All other trips have been east. Kid lives on the SW side of Stillwater. It took me a couple days to get comfortably oriented in my brain. I knew where I was, but really had to picture the map in my head and the location of the house in relation to the rest of the town. It was kinda interesting to be in a place and space I was not familiar with. It always seemed like I was leaving in the wrong direction. Even the sun was at a different angle. By 3rd day I was fine and quite comfortable.

I wonder if it was a sign of aging, or just being out of my element? I never felt uncomfortable, just unsure until I pulled up the mental picture of where I started from and where I was going. It didn't help that the rental car didn't have a compass. I guess I never realized how much I relied on the compass while driving until it was unavailable.

 

[kenmbz]

Moss- my father could get lost anywhere, but even as a kid (from about 5 years old) i could always get us back to the main road, camp site etc.
Some people seem to have built in location awareness, some don't, but I do find for myself that age has dulled the ability a bit.

And for those with iPhones, get google maps. the apple maps don;t give you enough warning before a turn, almost got my wife into accidents more than once.
I also find apple maps don;t work well when i go into a city like New York.

 

[JethroB]

Moss- my father could get lost anywhere, but even as a kid (from about 5 years old) i could always get us back to the main road, camp site etc.
Some people seem to have built in location awareness, some don't, but I do find for myself that age has dulled the ability a bit.

I find that a clear sunny day really helps me keep orientated. I suppose that following the sun is in our DNA somewhere. Nighttime, all bets are off.

 

[Jstpssng]

I find that a clear sunny day really helps me keep orientated. I suppose that following the sun is in our DNA somewhere. Nighttime, all bets are off.

I'm virtually lost without the sun... kind of like today. I was on a property line 1/2 mile from the truck and needed to go southeast to get to it... took a compass bearing and off I went. I bounced off that line three times before finally realizing I needed to use my compass, whereas on a clear day would have just put the sun on my right shoulder and gone to the road.

 

[BackRoad]

Moss, I've bought a few bricks at that school in Stillwater. Son graduated from there 17 years ago.

Blame the disorientation on the crazy town.

Hope you had time for Hideaway Pizza or Eskimo Joe's while you were there!

 

[MossRoad]

Moss, I've bought a few bricks at that school in Stillwater. Son graduated from there 17 years ago.

Blame the disorientation on the crazy town.

Hope you had time for Hideaway Pizza or Eskimo Joe's while you were there!

Had both! :thumbsup: (carry out, of course).

Future son-in-law is in Vet school there. Daughter was gonna take a gap year before grad school and do some internships/field research jobs, but they all got cancelled, so she's spending time there planning wedding and training a puppy.

Wish we could have seen more things while we were there. Most things were closed or reduced capacity. We took a few drives to Tulsa, OKC, and a bunch of small towns. Did a good day hike at Carl Blackwell's south side. Saw my first wild armadillo! Then another, and another, and.... probably 20-30 of them. :laughing:

That's the first toll-road where I've gotten off and they gave me a refund. :confused2:

:laughing:

 

[MossRoad]

I should mentioned they were closed due to an ice storm that came through the night before we got there, not COVID related. The ice storm was pretty wide-spread. OKC had a lot more damage than Stillwater, but it was a good couple hundred mile swath of downed tree branches. We were there a week and saw little progress in the cleanup. Some places were out of power the entire time we were there.

 

[BravoXray]

Got to have a little common sense when you drive one of these rigs...
David from jax

You have to have a LOT of common sense to drive one of those rigs. I owned three Petes for years, and when a driver hired on, which was pretty rare, I knew within a day or so whether he was going to make the cut or not.

A GPS is like any other tool, you have to know it's limitations. I supplied Rand-McNally GPSs in my trucks. They were pretty good, but not perfect for trucker use.

 

[Tractorable]

A few years ago a trucker followed his GPS down the Schafer Trail in Canyonlands National Park, Utah. It’s a Jeep trail with a 1000ft drop off that switch backs down the cliff. He couldn’t make it and had to disconnect the trailer. He had his back wheels dangling off the cliff trying to turn around.

 

[oosik]

If I'm going into an unknown area I will check it out on Google Earth Pro or the like. Once I know where I'm going, etc, etc - Print out a hard copy of the route. It might take two or three pages. The Garmin unit built into the BMW cycle or the Taco Wagon will be used to warn me of upcoming turns. I hate having to backtrack - especially in new, unknown areas.

There is no way I can follow the route on the GPS and keep a vehicle, shiny side up, and on the road. All at the same time. I enable "voice commands" on the GPS. It will start issuing commands about two miles before a turn. "Turn left onto Smith Rd - two miles". "Turn left onto Smith Rd - one and a half miles". ETC ...........

Pretty handy. All I have to do - look for Smith Rd, upcoming on the left.

I use "back tracks" on the hand held Garmin if I going to be walking far afield. Only really needed it once - but it saved a whole lot of "beating the brush".