OTish: Car SatNav

<rant>
My employer (i.e. the company that I own that employs me....) bought TomTom
Navigator 10 days ago as (a) I was needing new toy and (b) I was bored
waiting for my plane to France...

How can a company get away with selling such a bloody useless product
without being sued? I use the Derby A6/A5111 bypass every day and the M6 3
days a week. Neither road is on the TomTom maps and the company have
helpfully informed me that they do an update every *year* and registered
customers can *BUY* the upgrade at a discounted price...

Why the **** should I pay for an upgrade so that my navigation program can
include roads that have been open for the best part of a fucking year??? I
can't ask for directions from the thing til I get close to my destination as
if I 'navigate' from home it only uses hte roads it 'knows' about, so I have
to use maps and stuff just like I always have done.

That said I do have a new toy to pop in the car and it does tell me how fast
I'm going and I got a cool iPaq that I can't work properly with it, so its
not all bad..... Or something.
</rant>

Dave

 

TT2 or 3?

 

Have you noticed they've painted the wooden bloke?

 

3

 

A long long time ago... Still makes me smile on the way home, however....

Not as much as the shite queues *into* Derby off the relief make me smile
every morning, tho.....

Dave

PS. You out on Friday.. I's got a pass-out and am out all[1] eveing...

[1] As in til I get too pissed so I doubt I'll make it as late as last time.

 

Hint: Sat nav will *never* be better than local knowledge.

Just like paper maps. You have to *pay* for a new one when they build new
roads. Damned inconsiderate of them, I know.

Because they weren't open when the map was made. You feel you should get
them to make a new map for you every year for exactly how long?

Or you could tell it where you're going, then turn the navigation off until
you're close to your destination. OTOH if you know the route you want to
take, what do you need sat nav for anyway?

Chill.

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He looks a bit like Pip.

I'm still feeling poorly but as I'm climbing the walls then very
possibly yes.

I've got to drive to That London on Saturday so I won't be late.

Ginge, you up for it?

 

Worse now they've shut the A6 thru Alvaston...

But not as bad as the A52 into Nottingham.

 

I might go out for a quiet pint or two.

 

If I had local knowledge of the whole UK, I wouldn't need maps or satnav...
But a guiding hand is useful.

Yes I fucking do. For at least one fucking year! But they don't even
provide that. They are selling a product that is not fit for the purpose.
It's like selling a run-flat tyre that actually doesn't work when it has a
puncture because "when we have got the technology it *will* work. For an
extra charge". Why sell something that claims to get you somewhere using
the quickest and shortest route if it doesn't know the quickest and shortest
route?

So I don't have to spend half an hour of my own time working out a route.
Its is supposed to be there so I get up in the morning, tap in the postcode
and it takes me to my job for the day. Instead I get home each evening and
have to check a bunch of maps and print out detailed local maps of the
places I'm going to. Which is a PITA.

You haven't seen me stressed, have you.. that was as I was on the A449 into
Wolverhampton today as I crossed the NSL/40 zone line still braking at 60odd
as I noticed the 'Safety' Camera van with the hand held thing pointing at
me... Why was I speeding and running late? Well apart from getting up
late.. (cabn't work out what it is that keeps me up late at night...), the
fucking satnav didn't tell me about congestion on some of the roads I was
usng because... It didn't know the road exisited. So I used what knowledge
I have of the UK road system and took the long way round through Stoke and
was running v v late... If the satnav knew the roads it *may* have pointed
me towards some bask-road A roads I don't know about. Instead, it thought I
was in a field and gave up. A tenner says I just got another 3 points...

Dave

 

^^^^
Oops

Helps if I type summat before hitting 'send' I suppose....

Anyway, what I *meant* to say was:

"I suppose you'll not be going to the same places as me and/or Kathryn
then...?"

Dave

 

WavyDavy wrote:

So when you go and buy a map book, and one week later a new road is opened,
you think you should get a fre upgrade?

If it;s that much of a PITA, just use the route it gives you, it will get
you there, but you, apparently, still want to use your local knowledge.

No




--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
Alfa 116 Giulietta 3.0l (Really) Sprint 1.7 75 2.0 TS
Triumph Speed Triple: Black with extra black bits
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

Because getting the latest map data into a software release doesn't
happen overnight. There will always be anomalies between the digital map
and the current road network, but 99% of the time SatNav works just
fine.

To be honest, I haven't yet found any major errors with TomTom in the
few months I've been using it.

 

You're missing the bit where I complain about the fact that I have to *pay*
for the update. I was sold the system 10 days ago as the 'latest' maps.
I'd at least expect some free updates to take into account roads that
already existed at the time I bought the software but, instead, I will have
to pay even more to get my system working properly.

The roads that are missing off the map mean, for me, that the routes TomTom
can send me in he wrong direction for 10-40 miles at a time. In my view
that's a 'major error'.

That said, I acknowledge that they need time to update the maps, but
offering to charge me to get it right is taking the piss, imho. Especially
when the M6 Toll, for example, wasn't built overnight, so they've had quite
a while to prepare for it being opened and, therefore, offer a free patch to
include it in the maps for people who bought/registered in, say, the last 6
months.

Dave

 

If that's all you have to worry about, consider anger management.

 

No idea.

Text me if you sort something out.

 

Give me a route to plan on mine, I got some maps recently. I'll see if
they are any different to yours.

 

Ta

Try this one:

DE7 6 to anywhere in Wolverhampton.

Mine sends me to the A61 to get to the A38 as it doesn't know about the
A6/A5111 relief road and then after A38 mine says to take the A5 when the M6
Toll runs parallel to the A5 and takes about half the time...

Dave

 

Get a pen and draw it on. My Dad's midlands 1:50 thou still has the
M42/A42 and M40 on like that.

Admittedly he was building the M40...