TexasCHLforum.com

USA1 wrote:if you really want to confuse it .
set the destination for Hawaii

Mine didn't get confused, it just refused, although the map software did show a great circle route from Dallas to Honolulu.

Kevinf2349 wrote: There are a couple of really annoying traits though. One is to try and get me onto interstates or toll roads all the time.

I'm surprised yours doesn't have an option to select "avoidances" - i.e. I can tell my Garmin to avoid toll-roads, U-turns, dirt roads, etc. unless they're the only way to get where I'm going.

And mine's not a top-of-the-line model, either.

A few years back I saw a small news article about a German who had
purchased a brand new car with the navigation option.

He was zooming down the road and the nav system showed a bridge over
a river.

He ended up hurtling into the river where the road ended at the ferry dock.

This was written up as an actual news story, but one has to scratch one's head
and wonder - How could he be smart enough to buy a big new Bimmer or Benz,
then drive it into a river?

He and his girlfriend managed to escape from the car and swim/walk to shore.

SIA

The LEO address would be a great home address. That way the BG will be in right hood.

Abraham wrote:I have yet to understand the need for a GPS in a vehicle...

I find it handier than I thought I would, even in my home area. For going on to places I haven't been before, it is great; as noted above aside from the routing function, it gives pretty good info on food, gas stations, hotels, and such. Not always perfect, but reasonably accurate. I keep paper maps handy too -- they are better for broad overviews, and in case the GPS malfunctions, but the GPS is much better for keeping on the right track at complicated intersections while on the move -- don't have stop and look at the map. It's generally better at routing with one-way streets in mind -- lots of maps do not have that info at all.

Locally I use mine a lot for VFD calls, especially first responder calls. I have a pretty good idea where everything is in my area, but the GPS helps on our rural roads where people don't put up address numbers, or the weeds cover them up, or whatever. I also have the helicopter landing zones we use marked, and it of course gives the coordinates we relay to AirLife. I even marked fire hydrants and other water sources, which are few and far between where I live.

It is not permission for turning off your brain, tho, like that woman did in Death Valley, and ended up stranded and letting her son die of dehydration. Criminal stupidity, but she wants to blame the GPS, apparently.

I never leave my GPS in the truck -- it is pretty small, and goes right in my pocket when I get out. If I am not on home turf, or am going to be gone a long time, I take the mount off the windshield and put it out of sight.

I have a GPS and find it great to find alternate ways around traffic jams, and giving me an ETA when someone wants to know how rar away am I. Its really nice when you fly into someplace and rent a car. Reduces the confusion of leaving and comming back to the rental car place. Also pretty hasny to have for reporting an accident, while in a strange land. Biggest complaint though is I don't know why you have to pay extra to use it in Mexico.

Liberty wrote: Biggest complaint though is I don't know why you have to pay extra to use it in Mexico.

won't be a problem for me as i have made a commitment to never go there .

Actually, the maps in GPS units and online are generally made by only one of two companies in the US. And both of them have my house about 2 blocks north of where it is.

I have found other interesting differences, mainly in on-line maps. Several years ago, the small town I was going to was mapped about a hundred miles west of where it actually was. Good thing I stopped and asked for directions.

I wonder why they moved the town so far away.

TLE2 wrote:I have found other interesting differences, mainly in on-line maps. Several years ago, the small town I was going to was mapped about a hundred miles west of where it actually was. Good thing I stopped and asked for directions.

There's probably an unincorporated community of the same name where it was saying to go.

OTOH, I don't put much faith in consumer grade paper maps either. Pick up this year's Mapsco for any major metro area and look at how many "new and updated" roads it claims. It's often thousands more than the number of roads that have actually been physically altered in the last year, which would mean that the previous year's was seriously inaccurate. (And, since this has happened every year, it's just as likely that this year's is too.)

Why would a thief need to find a GPS device in your vehicle to find your house when all they need to do is check your glove box or visor for your insurance card which plainly states your address?... and EVERYONE should (or is supposed to) have this in an easily accessible location in their vehicle (unless you carry it on your person... but who does that?)

kirock7 wrote:Why would a thief need to find a GPS device in your vehicle to find your house when all they need to do is check your glove box or visor for your insurance card which plainly states your address?... and EVERYONE should (or is supposed to) have this in an easily accessible location in their vehicle (unless you carry it on your person... but who does that?)

Yeah, but the thief can get directions with the GPS? I keep my insurance in the Glove box, locked, Its still pretty much at hand.

kirock7 wrote:Why would a thief need to find a GPS device in your vehicle to find your house when all they need to do is check your glove box or visor for your insurance card which plainly states your address?... and EVERYONE should (or is supposed to) have this in an easily accessible location in their vehicle (unless you carry it on your person... but who does that?)

We do.

kirock7 wrote:EVERYONE should (or is supposed to) have this in an easily accessible location in their vehicle (unless you carry it on your person... but who does that?)

I do. For whatever odd reason, our insurance company sends a card for each vehicle with only that vehicle listed, and a separate set of cards with all vehicles listed. One of the all-vehicles ones is in my wallet, partially as a quick way to ID a vehicle if it's stolen, or if I lock the keys in and need to prove to a locksmith that it's mine. (With the callsign plates on it and my license in my wallet, it's pretty obvious, but it never hurts to have the VIN available.) The single-vehicle one is in the car, but not too easily found.

On the other hand, the typical smash-and-grab car burglar is going for very low-risk targets. It's a lot easier to cruise neighborhoods looking for empty driveways than to drive across town to an address from a GPS hoping the victim doesn't have another family member at home. After all, for all they know, they stole the wife's GPS, and the heavily armed husband could be at home getting madder by the second as wifey calls in to tell him somebody just busted the car window

Abraham wrote:I have yet to understand the need for a GPS in a vehicle.

Boat: Maybe, though I've never needed one.

One in a car or truck? I don't get it...

If I'm going to a new place, maps work fine.

I rode with someone once who had one that talked, i.e., "turn left, turn right, etc." it was annoying as heck.

If I couldn't find my way without one I'd find an alternative...

Now, get off my lawn!

With my job, I travel all over the U.S. When I'm in a city I don't know, my GPS is worth its weight in gold.