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Topic: Another UK driver nearly dies from following GPS instructions

Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 03-26-2009 03:32 PM

quote:

http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/26/another-uk-driver-nearly-dies-from-following-gps-instructions/

It's a meme that never gets old, wouldn't you agree? As the world gathers 'round again to chuckle at an all-too-faithful GPS user in the UK, we're looking this time at a man who literally drove his BMW to the brink of disaster while following his sat nav down a skinny, steep lane on the way to imminent death Todmorden. As the story goes, his navigation system apparently told him to drive directly into a fence just before the road fell off of a cliff, and considering that the 43 year old bloke uses the GPS for his job, you'd think he would have the whole "follow the leader" thing down pat. At any rate, the poor fellow did manage to survive, though he won't soon shake the "driving without due care and attention" charge. Nor the embarrassment.

Only in America.

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Stephen Furley
Film God

Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002

posted 03-26-2009 04:23 PM

We have a lot of these sort of drivers; they normally drive onto railway lines at level crossings. I was not far from Todmorden when I was in Bradford a few days ago. It's a nice part of the country, but rather hilly. It's also been used as a location for several films, including 'My Summer of Love' web page and the BBC television production of 'Oranges are not the only fruit' web page Both films where the leading characters were lesbians, but I don't think Tormorden is particularly noted for that.
Turning to claims to infamy, rather than fame, is that the town is at one end of a long railway tunnel, Summit Tunnel, the scene of one of the worst ever railway fires when a train carrying over a million litres of petrol caught fire in the tunnel in 1984. web page

It's also very close to Hebden Bridge, a major hot-spot of asbestos-related disease, and the former site of the notorious Acre Mill, which used to produce the stuff.

To it's other claims to fame Todmorden can now add idiots that can't drive.

The fire is long out and the asbestos mill long gone, so if this idiot gets banned from driving for a while it should be quite safe to go there.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 03-26-2009 06:02 PM

So it's not in America then.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 03-26-2009 06:20 PM

Hmmm.... I don't think it is, no.

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Louis Bornwasser
Film God

Posts: 4441
From: prospect ky usa
Registered: Mar 2005

posted 03-26-2009 07:00 PM

At least it's not in Kentucky. . . .we are mentioned in "News of the Wierd" waaaay too much. Louis

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Chad Souder
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 962
From: Waterloo, IA, USA
Registered: Feb 2000

posted 03-26-2009 09:47 PM

They aren't any BMWs in Kentucky, are there?

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Monte L Fullmer
Film God

Posts: 8367
From: Nampa, Idaho, USA
Registered: Nov 2004

posted 03-27-2009 12:25 AM

One thing about these GPS gadgets is that they don't know the shortcuts in saving time and fuel for the driver at times.

Told a friend how to get to one city in UTAH from where I live and he'd rather go what the GPS tells him how to go whereas if he took this alternate route, he would save 45m in travel time let alone 15 bucks in fuel savings..

Toys...preventing people on how to use their minds and how to study thing out for themselves.

-Monte

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Chris Slycord
Film God

Posts: 2986
From: 퍼항시, 경상푹도, South Korea
Registered: Mar 2007

posted 03-27-2009 08:23 AM

quote: Monte L Fullmer
One thing about these GPS gadgets is that they don't know the shortcuts in saving time and fuel for the driver at times.

Do you mean because of traffic or something? Because all the GPS devices I know of have all the major and minor roads, and as such could figure out routing through them to save time.

And if it was because of differences in traffic, I recall the newest version of the iguidance pc software (for those that would use your laptop or a PC built into your car for GPS) had a neat feature that it would come up with alternate routes based on time of day. So over time it could find which way is fastest with traffic differences and such.

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John Walsh
Film God

Posts: 2490
From: Connecticut, USA, Earth, Milky Way
Registered: Oct 1999

posted 03-27-2009 01:10 PM

Some GPS units can have an optonal feature where traffic info is brodcast on some radio frequency (FM subcarrier maybe) telling the gps to reroute you through less congested areas.

Now I read there is a newer feature where the car units all 'talk' to each other directly, telling other GPS's where they are and how fast they are moving. So no subscription service is needed.

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Monte L Fullmer
Film God

Posts: 8367
From: Nampa, Idaho, USA
Registered: Nov 2004

posted 03-29-2009 02:25 PM

..It could be that my friend, whom just got his GPS unit, didn't go through the channels on finding the hidden tricks inside to get the thing to show alternative routes...

I saw one use a GPS unit - granted, it was nice and interesting how a device can do such 'finger pointing' to where you need to go, but simply have no need for them since I don't travel much, and if I do, I find studying maps more entertaining and knowledgeable.

My "old-fashioned" slip is showing with this matter.

-Monte

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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 03-29-2009 03:43 PM

Not all GPS are created equal. I've tried several and have settled on the least bad.

One has to be smart though in knowing what information to give the GPS and how to search a route out before beginning. The GPS I use is TeleNav...9 times out of 10 it will pick a good route, if you tell it to base it on traffic. However, you can also tell it shortest or fastest...etc. You can tell it to avoid certain roads and it gives you almost real time traffic conditions (it is normally about 15 minutes behind).

Many a time it has told me about a traffic problem and re-routed me around it and when I got back on the highway, I could see the HUGE back up in my rearview mirror.

Considering it works on my phone, it is tough to beat. It not only is like having a map to everywhere (what is more dangerous, looking at a paper map or having a GPS give you audible cues and a mere glance to see about an exit?)...it also will find places to eat, shop...or whatever (Searches by name too).

It is far from perfect though...it hasn't been updated for the current Daylight Savings times so it is off by 1-hour right now on its ETA...it will lock up some times and just stop...often requring a reboot of the program or even the phone.

So it isn't perfect by a long stretch...but of the ones I've tried, it pretty easily beats them (Garman, AAA and one other that I forget the name of).

Steve

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Chris Slycord
Film God

Posts: 2986
From: 퍼항시, 경상푹도, South Korea
Registered: Mar 2007

posted 03-29-2009 07:21 PM

And the GPS unit is obviously only as good as the maps it has included. For instance, when I would take mine with me along one stretch of I-45, it would randomly freak out and say "turn left" to get back on the freeway despite the fact that I never left it. What ended up happening is that, they've been adding lanes to the freeway so based on the maps included with the machine it thought I was driving on a road that runs next to that freeway. Or how when I first came to Houston to look for an apartment, the GPS unit that came with my rental didn't have the road for one of the complexes I was going to since the land was newly developed.

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