to despise satnavs?

[StuckintheBellJar]

Rant: Was made lost by one again for the thousandth time (being kindly driven by someone else to somewhere) and would never buy one.

What is wrong with a sodding map? What???

Don't give me all this gibberish about not being able to check a map while driving; I rode a motorbike for years and you simply memorise the route. If it's a long trip you should be taking breaks anyway.

Grr.

YABU I love mine. I do alot of travelling with my job and we get on splendidly together I would be lost without him!

YABU... If you've been lost for a 'thousand times' when using one, can I respectfully suggest that it's not the equipment at fault but the thicko using it?

Ah but I'm never 'lost'. I might be miles and miles out but my satnav always knows where it is and will eventually find somewhere safe for me to pull over and wail down the phone. Mine also has a very useful 'Where am I?' button that is worn shiney.

(((my satnav))) Je t'aime...

YANBU...I do my research on Google Earth, right up to the front door (if it can get up to it),pretty much memorise the route, and then print instructions out to take with me, as well as having a road map in the car, just in case.
Works a treat each time. I would get horribly distracted by Satnav, I think they are dangerous.

I dont get this idea that sat navs are dangerous. They are a hell of a lot less dangerous than looking at a print out or book of maps. The danger comes from bad drivers not the sat nav

Sat Nav is horrid. It usually makes me more lost. My street is not on it - my Tesco delivery once went to the same address in a different town! Huddersfield and Sheffield, you know, only about 30 miles apart.

I love maps.

I have a French satnav as well as a UK one and sometimes I have them both on at the same time...

I will never be 'lost' as I don't know where I am in the first place but always manage to get there in the end.

I think there's a problem not with satnavs but with some people who think that, being technology, it can't be wrong.

Near here, a few years ago, about twenty tourists were killed when their coach driver, following his satnav, drove past, ooh, about a dozen large bright red signs with a crossed-out coach on them reading "NO COACHES! NO BUSES! NO LORRIES! DANGER!!! DANGER!!! DANGER!!! IF YOU ARE A COACH, PLEASE LEAVE THIS ROAD NOW!!! NOOOOOOOWWWWWWW! HERE IS THE LAST TURN OFF YOU MUST TAKE IT" in all major European languages. (Exaggerating slightly but not much).

Satnavs sometimes don't have important local knowledge - like standard coach brakes will not be able to cope with this descent.

Sirzy..You don't look at the printout while driving!!!!!!!!!!!!! You stop and look if you are really lost, but I always memorise most of it, or if my husband is in the car, he follows the directions for me,if I'm getting to a tricky bit!! (He doesn't drive).

I have found the newest TomTom's always give the right directions and are useful once you are there, for finding garages, supermarkets etc.

People do try to look at print outs and maps when driving. And often it simply isn't safe to stop and read a map. Because you can memoriese most of it doesn't mean other peoples trips can be memorised.

Sat Nav is much better and much safer than maps/print outs especially if alone. The issues come with crap drivers not the sat nav

SatNavs are brilliant for those of us who can't read maps.

YANU.

I like my TwatNav.

Do always have a map book too, though. They are not fail safe!

I do like the satnav, but I mainly drive with maps.... if I drive somewhere on satnav I cannot do it again, it's like being a passenger - you never really "take in" the directions. If I drive by maps, I actually remember the route and use commonsense for which approximate direction to take etc.

So for me, driving with maps teaches me the way to go, satnav doesn't.... and satnav can be very odd in its choice of directions.

Glad I'm not quite the only one!

As for the comment about thickos using them - I've been made lost while being driven by several different people. I have never used one and rarely get lost. Satnavs train people to stop using their brains and are seriously distracting.

Satnavs train people to stop using their brains and are seriously distracting.

Rubbish, if someone "stops using their brain" when driving they simply shouldn't bother getting behind the wheel. If someone things they are infallible then more fool them. Used with common sense they are great, if people lack that then don't blame the sat nab.

How, exactly, is it distracting to have a voice telling you when to go?

It is certainly no more distracting than having a person in the passenger seat rustling a map and saying "next left...no, straight on... No! No! Left!"

It really is a "computer says no" situation. There are many stories of accidents caused by the bloody things

There may be, but that is due to the idiot behind the wheel not the machine.

How many accidents have been caused by people distracted looking at a map? or realising they have missed the junction so performing a daft manoeuvre?

Sat Nav accidents are caused by thick drivers, not sat navs.

YANBU. Can't stand Sat Nav, its got no contour lines! I like a nice map of the UK, then various OS maps for the area, or street maps if a city. I just pull over to check them where necessary. Never get lost with a map.

OTOH people who can't read maps always strike me as semi-literate.

'after 100 yards turn right'
ok mrs satnav ill do that
'recalculating'
I just did what u frigging said!!! Argh, can I punch it, can i?

YANBU. I nearly bought one last year but decided to save my money in the end. Several of DH's family members have got lost on a few occasions whilst following a sat nav. We arrange to meet MIL at a pub a few months ago. She knew where to go, but decided to follow her sat nav and was 45mins late. They really do odd things to people's brains.

And, for my hen weekend we did an activity in the daytime at a place off the M1 (I didn't know where we were going). I remember my friend who was driving telling the rest of us to shut up as she was listening to the sat nav, which was saying "continue along the M1" ad infinitum! FFS at least she should have already looked up which junction to take!

I like maps. But I also have a smartphone which is great as a kind of sat nav-lite (but is only used if absolutely necessary)

My satnav has an Eddie Izzard voice...."bear left.......monkey right..."