innsaneink
Well-known member
Sat-nav glitch leads to a dead end
Rachel Olding
January 14, 2012
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/satnav-glitch-leads-to-a-dead-end-20120113-1pzdq.html#ixzz1jR35y2cu
\
\
SURPRISING as it may sound, even machines can fail us sometimes. With holidaymakers migrating back to the city this month, beware the directions of the seemingly infallible satellite navigation system.
Annika Roden's sat-nav gained a mind of its own one recent Saturday as she drove her soccer team to a game at the University of Sydney's Cumberland campus.
The 25-year-old marketing executive was wrongly directed into Rookwood Cemetery, down several small tracks and eventually to a lone tombstone.
Advertisement: Story continues below
''There was lots of screaming in the car,'' she said.
A sign, perhaps? Or, with the gadget's ever-increasing popularity, one of many sat-nav disaster stories finding a home online where embarrassed drivers and incredulous authorities are venting about our increasing reliance on technology.
There was the Syrian truck driver who became stranded on a nature reserve in Gibraltar Point, Lincolnshire, England, 2500 kilometres from his intended destination of Gibraltar, on the southern tip of Spain.
A Belgian truck driver left a $50,000 trail of destruction when his sat-nav directed him into an unsuitable cul-de-sac, forcing him to manoeuvre out by ploughing over a mini roundabout and destroying six cars.
And a British man had to be rescued after following his device's directions to a friend's house, which took him up a steep, rocky footpath until his BMW hit a fence just before a 30-metre drop.
A few years ago, Victorian police had to issue a plea for drivers to keep their old-fashioned maps after twice rescuing drivers whose GPS directed them up roads suited to four-wheel-drive vehicles.
Wendy Hammond, the marketing director for the Oceania arm of Navman, said problems arise when people don't update maps.
''We do hear fewer and fewer of these stories because the maps used to be updated once a year but now we do it four times a year. But we might release a map today and tomorrow a council decides to make a street one way.''
Maps have become more detailed and Navman also relies on ''natural guidance'', which uses landmarks to assist directions. But commonsense is a must. ''We have a saying that the GPS is there to assist you, you don't turn off your brain and let the unit drive.''
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/satnav-glitch-leads-to-a-dead-end-20120113-1pzdq.html#ixzz1jR2piGFK
Rachel Olding
January 14, 2012
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/satnav-glitch-leads-to-a-dead-end-20120113-1pzdq.html#ixzz1jR35y2cu
\
\
SURPRISING as it may sound, even machines can fail us sometimes. With holidaymakers migrating back to the city this month, beware the directions of the seemingly infallible satellite navigation system.
Annika Roden's sat-nav gained a mind of its own one recent Saturday as she drove her soccer team to a game at the University of Sydney's Cumberland campus.
The 25-year-old marketing executive was wrongly directed into Rookwood Cemetery, down several small tracks and eventually to a lone tombstone.
Advertisement: Story continues below
''There was lots of screaming in the car,'' she said.
A sign, perhaps? Or, with the gadget's ever-increasing popularity, one of many sat-nav disaster stories finding a home online where embarrassed drivers and incredulous authorities are venting about our increasing reliance on technology.
There was the Syrian truck driver who became stranded on a nature reserve in Gibraltar Point, Lincolnshire, England, 2500 kilometres from his intended destination of Gibraltar, on the southern tip of Spain.
A Belgian truck driver left a $50,000 trail of destruction when his sat-nav directed him into an unsuitable cul-de-sac, forcing him to manoeuvre out by ploughing over a mini roundabout and destroying six cars.
And a British man had to be rescued after following his device's directions to a friend's house, which took him up a steep, rocky footpath until his BMW hit a fence just before a 30-metre drop.
A few years ago, Victorian police had to issue a plea for drivers to keep their old-fashioned maps after twice rescuing drivers whose GPS directed them up roads suited to four-wheel-drive vehicles.
Wendy Hammond, the marketing director for the Oceania arm of Navman, said problems arise when people don't update maps.
''We do hear fewer and fewer of these stories because the maps used to be updated once a year but now we do it four times a year. But we might release a map today and tomorrow a council decides to make a street one way.''
Maps have become more detailed and Navman also relies on ''natural guidance'', which uses landmarks to assist directions. But commonsense is a must. ''We have a saying that the GPS is there to assist you, you don't turn off your brain and let the unit drive.''
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/satnav-glitch-leads-to-a-dead-end-20120113-1pzdq.html#ixzz1jR2piGFK
