Safe Speed Forums

Auto-routing navigation systems with voice output are really about the same as having a passenger holding a map telling you when to turn. Except with a more annoying voice.

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Andrew.

As a rally navigator you can imagine I hold the talking boxes as the devils work As to whether they're dangerous? Well, stuck in traffic at a busy roundabout I glanced over to an Omega (no connection I hope) and noticed his sat nav was sat on top of the dash directly in front of him. In that case GPS was dangerous!
What is a bit scary is that people are now 100% reliant on them, and they are yet another distraction.

Barkstar

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The difference between intelligence and stupidity is that intelligence has limits.

How tall was the driver?

Well as I remember he was no six footer. But 5ft or 6ft its still in his way and you could easily hide a bike, pedestrian or dangerous debris behind it. Aren't there rules about their positioning anyway?

Barkstar

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The difference between intelligence and stupidity is that intelligence has limits.

You could, but then again you could just as easily not. As I said in a previous thread on this subject - "without evaluating each installation from the exact point of view of the driver, it's not that easy to judge how much forward vision they're losing - if any at all"...

Since that thread I've replaced my old factory satnav equipped Omega with a newer satnav-less one, and so have joined the TomTom club. As a result, I can now update the pics in that earlier thread with some featuring a real TT, showing exactly how little forward vision may be impaired with a dashtop location.



These two pics show almost exactly how little forward vision I'd give up by having a TT sat atop the dash, either directly in front of me or just off to the left.



This pic simply drops the camera a couple of inches, representing the eyeline of a shorter driver, or someone my height who drives with the seat lowered even further than I put it. In this example, the loss of forward vision would give me cause for concern, but notice that the TT itself hasn't moved at all, illustrating my original point about drivers eyeline being all important.

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Chris

Been out and had a couple of more drives with sat nav assistance now and once the novelty wore off and tiff needell had annoyed me with his 'safety' alerts i just switched it off and went back to reading road-signs.

with the road-signs it meant i never had to take my eyes off the road completely and the signs do seem to come along at the right time. unlike sat nav with her 'continue on this road for a while...', 'in 1 mile take the..', 'in 1/2 mile take the...', 'at the next opportunity turn..', 'you have reached your destination' comments. annoyingly i hadnt actually reached my destination at all.

not sure what it is with road angel but she was adamant i shouldnt use the m5 to get to taunton either. i hadnt turned motorways off and set it for fast car and shortest route.

still, the girlfriend has now uploaded all her pictures on to it so that will give her something else to do whilst she is driving around.

p.s. apologies for complete lack of capital letters, both shift keys have decided they dont want to do any more shifting any more...

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The police ARE the law, not ABOVE it!!!