GPS
Mar 24, 2017 12:42:33 #
I love traveling with a GPS in the car, but I wonder why it changes the route from day to day. On a couple of previous trips to the same place, it took me there on one route but varied it on the return trip. Today, it had me take a different road to get to the midpoint of the trip. Odd. Just for the fun of it, I used two Garmins on the way home. They chose the same route, but their arrival times were off by three minutes. The gap closed as I got near home, and eventually, both units agreed on the time. When I think of all the years I spent planning trips on maps...
Mar 24, 2017 12:48:09 #
At one time I called Garmin abut an issue, forget what it was but I inquired about routing, the units have traffic history stored and depending on the stored history and time of day the route can vary, sometimes even to less desirable routes. Did you hear about the woman who followed her GPS app and almost died in Death Valley? I think the news called it an app so I guess that means on a phone.
Mar 24, 2017 12:49:50 #
Brasspounder001
Loc: Erewhon
Being a long time map user I can usually figure out locations and routes faster than a GPS.
Mar 24, 2017 12:54:18 #
At one time I read an article about how a GPS accuracy varies with the number of satellites are sensed. It takes three to triangulate a position but the accuracy will be least. My Garmin quotes the accuracy in terms of a circle given in feet diameter. The least accuracy generally was 50 feet and best was 5 feet. Now consider triangulating the corners of your house lot or country acreage. Land surveyors go snort snort.
Mar 24, 2017 13:11:44 #
I was headed to Yosemite a couple of years ago and about 10-20 miles before arriving at the entrance gate, my phones GPS had me take a left turn which soon turned into a dirt road. I was very tempted to just follow those directions because I was driving a Jeep Rubicon which can navigate just about any dirt road on the planet, but my better senses told me to turn around and take the highway. I was meeting people in Yosemite and didn't want to alarm them if I was 4 hours late because I took a dirt road. I do believe that if I did take that dirt road, it would have led me into the park on the other side of the entrance and would have saved me the cost of entry. LOL
Mar 24, 2017 13:26:40 #
Consumer GPS units are deliberately less accurate than the possible, wouldn't want them to be used as part of a weapons system.
Mar 24, 2017 13:55:34 #
Brasspounder001 wrote:
Being a long time map user I can usually figure out locations and routes faster than a GPS.
I'll occasionally use the GPS to get me from one local spot to another, and I am often surprised to see it select a shorter route that hadn't occurred to me.
Mar 24, 2017 13:56:30 #
Mar 24, 2017 14:01:15 #
jerryc41 wrote:
I love traveling with a GPS in the car, but I wond... (show quote)
I've had 3 Garmins. The last one is sitting in my glove compartment. Get the WAZE App for your cell phone Jerry. WAZE knows the best (and fastest) ways.
Mar 24, 2017 14:12:03 #
You should try two different brands of GPS and see the results. Should be interesting.
Mar 24, 2017 14:12:04 #
Mar 24, 2017 15:13:48 #
traveler90712 wrote:
You should try two different brands of GPS and see the results. Should be interesting.
I've always liked Garmin, but I had a car that I installed a Pioneer radio into and then added the GPS feature. When I sued both on a trip, the Garmin gave me better directions.
Mar 24, 2017 15:23:55 #
Indi wrote:
I've had 3 Garmins. The last one is sitting in my glove compartment. Get the WAZE App for your cell phone Jerry. WAZE knows the best (and fastest) ways.
I tried WAZE once, and it worked fine, but the cell phone screen is so small, and I have to pay for data on TracFone.
Mar 24, 2017 20:45:16 #
jerryc41 wrote:
I love traveling with a GPS in the car, but I wonder why it changes the route from day to day...
I had a gps built into my 2005 car and it worked OK except that the map was on a disk and to update the map when roads were reconfigured cost a couple hundred bucks for a new disk. So I used the old map for 12 years.
Recently I used my cell phone for a gps on a long trip. The difference between the old map and the cell phone was really significant. The phone had not only the current roads, but also the traffic at the moment. When slowdowns occurred along the route the phone would suggest detours that you could take before you got into the slow area. And it would update the ETA depending on the traffic conditions.
Mar 24, 2017 23:33:42 #
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