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, our SatNav has saved many arguments. I'm the kind of map reader who needs to swivel the page so I'm facing the "right" direction. DH would regularly want directions for the fourth or fifth turn ahead - the bit I hadn't come to yet - so journeys were often pretty tense. If I drove and let him mapread he would never tell me about lane changes on time - you try driving across Sydney Harbour Bridge with it's many lanes making sure you're in the right one for your exit!!! Introduce SatNav, no more problems.

YANBU
I have a good sence of direction. I love a map and will memorise a route.
DH doesn't have amy sence of direction. He can't read road signs and drive at the same time.We have recently moved and he has NO IDEA where anything is. He is so relient on the satnav that he doesn't know whether to turn left or right going from our house even if we have been there before.

Drives me nuts.

YANBU. I hate satnavs and much much prefer planning a route, memorising it and then getting on with it. I also think it breeds laziness, my DH has admittedly a terrible sense of direction and so when he passed his driving test at age 30 he got a satnav from his Dad. Problem was that because he'd only ever driven with either a driving instructor or a computer telling him what to do or where to go he never learnt even our most common routes. He also seemed to pay more attention to the satnav then the road conditions - I'm not making excuses, that is his fault, but we're so conditioned to follow computers that RL sometimes comes second. I made him get rid of it and he instantly became a better, more aware driver.

Also, with satnavs, you have no idea where you are - my PIL drive through whole swathes of the country without knowing which areas they're passing through. If you've looked at a map you'll know your route, but you'll also have seen the surrounding areas you'll be passing through. Maybe not the most important thing about travelling, but certainly useful for building up a picture of the country you live in/drive through.

They are useful in busy city centres, I'll give you that, but on the whole I think they're crap.

I swear our satnav has saved our marriage on numerous occasions. I can read maps perfectly well, but somewhere in the process of figuring out route/communicating it to DH/DH understanding something always goes horribly wrong (I blame DH's comprehension skills ). Now I just let him get irritated at the satnav instead.

My Sat Nav nearly killed me a few weeks ago. It told me to turn left, I did, without thinking, just blindly doing as I was told, into 6 lanes of oncoming traffic. There is - and never was - a left turn there.

I was hit by a 10 ton truck and four other cars. If it wasn't for the fact that I drive a veritable tank, myself, my assistant (and my unborn baby) would almost certainly have died.

I will never replace the Sat Nav. I now rely solely on my own brain.

"Everyone I've ever known get one has always tried it out on a route they knew and without fail the satnav has taken them on an odd route. God knows how far out of their way they get taken on routes they don't know."

When we got our satnav we tried it on several routes that we already knew to test it out. It was spot on. My choice of satnav was based on how accurate it was in tests and I am still pleased with it (it's a TomTom). I google map and read maps perfectly well - in fact I love looking at maps, and always plan my route by looking at a map first, but there are simply occasions where, if I am driving on my own through a city centre that I don't know and where there are no opportunities to stop and map read, that only a satnav will do.

I simply cannot memorise my way around the centre of Sheffield for example, but know how to get from my house to the ring road. It is the last bit that always confuses me - and I do have a good sense of direction.

I don't think satnavs breed laziness either, that is just an excuse to feel superior. Congratulations to those of you who do have a photographic memory for city centres and complicated one way systems, but not all of us are blessed with that.

I love mine. It answers the how much further' question for DD. I always look at a map before I leave and use that to plan the main part of the journey.

Sorry blonde but that would be you nearly killing yourself not the sat nav, I think that is a prime example of what people have been saying about the issue coming when people don't look at signs etc for themselves

Blonde - surely you know not to turn without checking it's safe!!!??? So if a passenger had said turn left here you'd have done the same therefore the fault is with you not the sat nav.

"My Sat Nav nearly killed me a few weeks ago."

I'm really glad you're OK but, unfortunately, the Sat Nav didn't nearly kill you, you did.

This is the problem - people blaming a piece of equipment when it is really down to bad driving or ignorance.

I think they have their uses, but I only use mine as a last resort I must admit. As others have said, they are useful in city centres, country lanes and complicated "last bits", but I don't like using them for long journeys as I prefer a map and my own navigational skills, feel a bit like I'm going into the fog if I set out with just the sat nav. I've found ours rubbish at doing detours cross country if you get a road closure (fairly common round here) it just keeps trying to re-route you back to the closed road.

For DH it is a godsend though, he is another one who can't map read, visualise routes, absorb all the road signs easily.

"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."

I think that says more about your MIL then it does about the Sat Nav.

Mine can be programmed to take you the shorter, fastest, or avoiding motorways route. I think there is an "economical" option too. If I disagree with where it is sending me, I take the route I know. It soon recalculates.

I believe that in all cases the error is not that of the Sat Nav but that of the driver.

Last year I was in Holland with my DS. No sat nav and relying solely on navigating with a road map.

I missed my Sat Nav. A 6 year old is quite good with a map but I had to pull over and check so many times.

Soup dragon - exactly. My Sat Nav often shouts at me but if I know that another way is easier, or that a road doesn't look quiet right then I am not going too follow it without thinking.

This thread has reminded me of a pre sat nav trip where the printed route wanted to send me down what was literally a back alley behind some houses. I didn't follow that instruction either!

Having moved from the UK to the suburbs of Paris as an inexperienced driver with no natural sense of direction, I seriously think my quality of life has been hugely improved by having a sat nav. There is simply no way I would have attempted half the routes I have without it, and would have been much more reliant on DP to drive me places.

That said, I absolutely agree that it needs to be used with common sense - they are certainly not infallible, like practically everything else in life.

Am in awe of all the people who can simply memorise routes. I know from experience that unless I am doing a simple route on relatively familiar territory, I am simply unable to do that. I start questioning myself and second guessing my choices almost immediately.

Oh what a shame... a light-hearted thread has turned into a droning series of put-downs... as calculated!

geegee... Some people would say that those who post on chat-forums are barely literate, not even semi... imagine that?

I think that's the problem, you tend to put too much trust into these things. I had just worked a 14 hour day, I was tired, as I said I was pregnant, there wasn't a 'sign' as such, as this area has been a building site for so long and it is very confusing.

It was a combination of things but yes, I should have paid more attention and not blindly done as I was told. I have learnt my lesson.