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Whether it's the driver less car, or the recent iPhone
Maps
app controversy, GPS has been top of mind.
A recent road trip in a rented car, with a third party GPS
device, has finally solidified this idea in my head (it's
been
bouncing there for a long time).
For the love of God, why
does the navigation system in
any
car ever have you take short detours? You've been in
these situations -- already nervous, possibly late,
speeding, and there's a last second turn off to switch
highways -- only to switch back the next exit.
No common setting on these units -- freeways, etc -- can
ever get rid of this problem. And even if you vaguely
know
the way, you have to be nervous because it wants you to
reroute from the way you've gone before, and you can't
really easily see what's coming ahead. And the worst is
when you actually miss the exit -- then detour -- only to
find out that the whole thing could have been avoided.
But there's a simple algorithm adjustment that fix this--
don't give me shortest path, or fastest path, or
crowdsourced path.
Give me the path that minimizes changing the road I am
already on --a "minimize turns" option, effectively.
This would save a lot of aggravation when using any
navigation device for actual driving.
[link]
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You seriously have GPS units tell you to jump off then right back on a highway on a regular basis? I've never had that happen, except with a few very advanced models that do it specifically to avoid major traffic problems. |
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Most mapping software does favor a "simplest" approach to some extent, balancing it with a fastest path. |
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We observe your discomfiture with
satisfaction and indeed glee. Long may you
suffer. |
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GPS is not navigation. It is a navigational aid,
nothing more. Those who let themselves
become dependant on it deserve everything
they get, which includes driving onto bridges
that aren't there and drowning in cold, deep
water. |
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Get a map. Learn how to read it. Use GPS for
the last few kilometres if you need to,
nothing more. |
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GPS merely encourages those who can't
navigate to travel, which is not a good thing. |
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Somehow, I have difficulty imagining the Borg
pulling out OS Landranger series maps. |
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"OK, 9th of 3 - if we go via Andromeda we can stop
off at the services and still be there in time to
hegemonize before teatime. Oh and, look!, there
are Roman earthworks we could visit on the way." |
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The problem is that GPS units that do this are the cheap bargain ones. This feature would only be found on expensive ones less likely to have problems in the first place. Anyway just use Google maps on Android for navigation since you can see your entire route in map view and you will notice if it is doing anything weird. |
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This kind of talk makes me long for the days when people used the stars to find their way and knew that the sun rose in the east and set in the west.
I own none of the devices of which you speak, yet I travel to places I've never been to and always find my way home. I like real maps. (although [DIY]'s idea sounds pretty good and I will eventually have to get a smartphone as my cell phone will soon be an antique!) |
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I've just added a 4th possibility as to what [8th] is doing on Earth. |
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[ ] can't you program in your own route on those things ? |
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I'm with [8th] on this one. GPS systems are to maps what
Facebook is to interpersonal relations. Every winter,
people coming to drop off their dogs at our
kennel call us up complaining that their Garmin sent them
to an empty dirt lot on the wrong side of the river. If they
had just taken their eyes off of the screen, they would
have seen our sign as they went speeding past. |
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Our place is easy to find. We are right on the main road
that runs up the valley. Yet when I try to give people
simple directions, I get "Oh, it's okay, I have GPS!" |
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A GPS navigation system is not an acceptable replacement
for a brain. |
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//Give me the path that minimizes changing the
road I am already on --a "minimize turns" option,
effectively.// |
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*Pulls out iPhone, opens Waze, taps Settings-
>Navigation, checks to make sure I remembered
correctly that “Minimize
turns” option is there.* Yep, it is. Sooooo…
baked? |
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//A GPS navigation system is not an acceptable
replacement for a brain.// |
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The implication here being that, lacking GPS, most
drivers would actually /use/ their brains. |
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//A GPS navigation system is not an acceptable
replacement for a brain.// And yet, obviously, we
can all run at 80mph. |
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// next to the meat pie shop and across the road from the
furry earmuffs shop... // |
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See, that's exactly what I'm talking about! I'm sitting here
in rural Maine, adjacent to absolutely nothing that Apple
deigns worthy of putting on a map, yet when I enter my
address it gives me directions to Milton Keynes. |
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Yes, but you're one of the Halfbakers, the minority of
(presumed) human beings who spend half the time thinking
and the other half complaining about those who don't. I
think this is one of those rare issues upon which everyone
here agrees. GPS and all of its derivative technology is a
_tool_, not a solution. |
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// when I enter my address it gives me
directions to Milton Keynes // |
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You poor bastard … that's not a software
error, it's pure malevolence, possibly an
international conspiracy … |
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Have you upset any major sovereign
governments recently? Think carefully, it's so
easy to do without noticing … |
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It is to virtually all of the rest of coastal England what the
Jersey Shore is to the rest of the US East Coast, only in
some
unfathomably British way that has no distinct counterpart
in American culture. |
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// Have you been there ? // |
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The answer to that is clearly "No". |
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Try to envisage a sort of downmarket, half-
scale version of Boca Raton, from which all
the positive qualities have been meticulously removed,
then add drizzle and populate it with grey,
soulless morons whos idea of a good time is
an afternoon queueing in traffic to get into
the car park at Ikea. |
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You got off lightly. Basically, it's the difference between standing a bit to close to the barbeque for a few minutes, and roasting in the next to lowest pit of Hell for all Eternity. |
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// I have difficulty imagining the Borg pulling out OS Landranger series maps // |
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You can do it if you try. Mostly we work from the ICAO half-million sheets, but we even have the 1:2500 ones for targeting individual dwellings. |
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// a 4th possibility as to what [8th] is doing on Earth // |
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I live in Great Falls [21] |
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Sorry I missed you. And I apologize for the other denizens
of this town. I wish I could tell you they're not usually like
that but it would be a blatant lie. Stay away from this
place. |
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//Sorry I missed you.// Yeah, hitting a moving
target with a bottle is tricky. |
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// It's just so easy to make jarheads look like idiots... // |
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Yes, but the consequences can be pretty severe. |
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"ugly severe" might be a better description. |
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Oh, and Royal Marines are worse. U.S.
Marines often lack a sense of irony,
particulalry in stressful situations. However,
R.M.'s do have a sense of humour, aalbeit
very black, twisted and … unsophisticated?
Earthy? Basic? Downright vicious ? |
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Anyway, what it means is that if you make
fun of them, they will just laugh. They enjoy
this as they get to laugh twice; once when
you make fun of them, and then again when
they exact retribution and revenge. It is as
well to remember that their idea of what
constitutes "funny" is somewhat different
from normal perceptions, and may include,
but not be limited to, severe beatings,
dropping someone from a helicopter into a
partially cleared minefield, iinflicting partial
frostbite in 40c+ temperatures by skilled
application of a CO2 fire extinguishers tto the
victim's ears (try explaining THAT one to the
M.O.) or ingenious pranks involving large
insects, which we assure you that you do not
wish to know about. |
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[21]'s statement brought to mind an event I witnessed in a
bar in North Carolina: instilled with a considerable amount
of liquid bravado, a foolhardy civilian backed by three
cronies accused a Navy corpsman (a combat medic) of
being a "pussy and a coward" because he had elected not
to "fight like a real man." Before the corpsman could
respond, a pair of Marines materialized out of nowhere and
there followed a scene of unmitigated violence that I, with
all of my creative prowess, would be hard-pressed to
embellish upon. A third Marine was required to restrain the
corpsman from entering the fight, on the grounds that his
hands were more valuable to the Corps than any three
grunts combined. I left shortly thereafter,
as the situation appeared to be escalating and I had no
desire to end up as collateral damage. |
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Say what you want about Marines (of any uniform), but be
prepared for swift and brutal re-education if you say it to
their faces. |
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Hmm... you must have gotten the jump on them, to come
out on top. Airmen are all pussies and cowards who don't
fight like real men. |
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Proportionately, combat medics win more
than their share of medals, and
understandably so. They are indeed highly
valued and respected by their comrades so
it's unsurprising that summary vengeance
was dished out. Going out under fire to
attend an injured man requires a very
special kind of courage. |
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The kind of idiot that has a go at service
personnel is the same kind of idiot who
ignores the big sign that says "Do not
remove your clothing and jump up and down
on this Fire ant hill".
They are an endangered species, for obvious
reasons. |
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for the record, I have a regular TOMTOM which does this
to me and I have had a regular Garmin do this to me in
rental cars. I support [TheirCompetitor] and hate this
problem. I also designed a shortest path algorithm once
and my basic solution to this issue was to weight all
changes as equal to 1 year of time then the fastest route
could be the minimum time of travel + the number of
changes. Then strip out all the years from the result and
you have almost no changes to the existing code of the
system. Lazy but functional. |
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