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Joined: Mar 18, 2004 Posts: 753 Location: Biggleswade, BEDS
Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2005 9:13 am Post subject:
TT3 directed me down a farms track, that progressively got worse due to the number of 4x4 and tractors that used. Eventually we became stuck as the car had bottomed out on the center of track....had some explaining to do at work the next day.....
Joined: Feb 05, 2005 Posts: 1039 Location: East Sussex
Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2005 10:47 am Post subject:
i have had that as well near oxted ,the road was jammed up so i decieded to take a detour ended up on a farm track ,car was a ittle worse off after crater after crater was driven though ,and not getting stuck in my astra estate _________________ TomTom 5001
Well I think you are being a bit hard on the woman driver . I'm not sure that the TomTom should have been made to look worse than the Navman , but if you have never been directed into a no entry , no through road , bollarded street , disused country lane or non existant road , then you are extremely lucky . I believe tt5 is worse in this respect than tt3 , in spite of having more up to date maps , and the "quickest" routing will send you down some very doubtful roads sooner or later . Sat nav isn't idiot proof , foolproof or even
feeling-a-bit-tired proof but I don't expect PCworld emphasize that fact.
Having been a sat nav user for over a year now, I have never gone down a one way street or disused country lane. From memory, Tomtom has never tried to lead me down the wrong way on a system either but surely drivers should still be looking at road signs???
Granted the maps could do with improvement but give me tomtom any day over a silly AA roadmap.
This is a BBC extract about the piece in the watchdog program . Interesting to see the reaction of TomTom Go owners in their forum , have a look !
Quote:
Satellite Navigation Systems From PC World
4th October 2005
Amanda McKinnie bought a satellite navigation system that could not direct her out of her local village, Rainham. She was left driving around in circles for ten months, while PC World refused to refund her the £405 she paid for it.
PC World had previously supplied her with three other satellite navigation systems. One directed her over the Dartford Crossing, regardless of her destination. Another was not loaded with any maps at all and a third spoke only Spanish.
The final system was by Tom Tom and cost more money, but it turned out to be the most problematic of all. Amanda spent 45 minutes following its directions just trying to leave Rainham, in the process it even directed her into someone's back garden!
PC World says it has sold thousands of satellite navigation systems to satisfied customers. It accepts it should have refunded Amanda's money sooner and has now given Amanda all her money back.
No offence, but if you are just going to take direction after direction from the satnav system, there are going to be times that you are going to go wrong. I think a bit of common sense is needed (not that I'm implying that women shouldn't be behind the wheel of course )
I'm sorry but far too many people seem will to accept the lousy quality of maps in these systems. Customers buy goods from TT or whoever based on what is stated about them. Do satnav suppliers say their maps can be years out of date? That the direction given can be wrong ? That the mapping is unreliable and you should not believe it?
Map suppliers claim 100% coverage in the UK but its obviously not 100% accurate. Instead of updating their existing coverage areas Teleatlas and Navteq are expanding in other countries.
But, who to blame? TomTom and the other Satnav suppliers because they are the suppplier. Its is their relationship with the mapping companies that has allowed sub-standard maps to be provided to the customers.
If a product is not fit for purpose then customers have every right to complain and get their money refunded, don't make excuses for product.
OK , I agree , everyone has to be aware that you can't blindly follow directions without regard to obvious map errors , road signs etc , but if you do deviate from the chosen route for any reason , maybe in an unfamiliar town , French countryside , or whatever , there's not much option but to keep following directions to get back to the route .
I still find the "shortest " routing is full of traps for the unwary.
Joined: Jan 22, 2004 Posts: 278 Location: Romford UK
Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2005 1:34 pm Post subject:
not saying all women drivers are the same as my wife, but tomtom should say "turn towards wedding ring hand (left) or slap husband around the face hand (right)"
Amanda McKinnie bought a satellite navigation system that could not direct her out of her local village, Rainham. She was left driving around in circles for ten months, while PC World refused to refund her the £405 she paid for it.
PC World had previously supplied her with three other satellite navigation systems. One directed her over the Dartford Crossing, regardless of her destination. Another was not loaded with any maps at all and a third spoke only Spanish.
The final system was by Tom Tom and cost more money, but it turned out to be the most problematic of all. Amanda spent 45 minutes following its directions just trying to leave Rainham, in the process it even directed her into someone's back garden!
PC World says it has sold thousands of satellite navigation systems to satisfied customers. It accepts it should have refunded Amanda's money sooner and has now given Amanda all her money back.
As it happens I have used my SatNav (TomTom5) in Rainham several times, and I have had no problems at all.
I believe that this 'Amanda' has probably been confused by slavishly following the GPS pointer on the map, rather than the voice directions. Because the pointer is about 1-2 seconds behind the actual position of the vehicle, it is quite easy to miss the correct turning (particulary roundabout exits).
Whilst the sale of goods act is useful for defective items, retailers should not be pressured into issuing refunds due to defective customers. Not even by the BBC, who probably didn't test the equipment either. _________________ Regards
Joined: Jun 07, 2005 Posts: 20 Location: North East, UK
Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2005 2:19 pm Post subject:
I watched the program and was waiting for a big attack on TomTom for how they sell a product that sends you down silly little roads with outdated maps and poor configuration choices, ie unable to set road preferences by type, and instead they seemed to imply that PC World were the bad guys for selling this woman SatNav systems that didn't work correctly. I do think they missed the point really.
I don't know wether anyone noticed but when she went down one of the dead ends you could quite clearly hear TomTom say "Turn around when possible" which implies she had actually taken a wrong turn
I don't know wether anyone noticed but when she went down one of the dead ends you could quite clearly hear TomTom say "Turn around when possible" which implies she had actually taken a wrong turn
TT has done that to me before. I'm driving along a main road, it says turn left so I turn left, and then says turn around and puts me back on the main route. I don't think the user should take too much blame for 'blindly' following the directions, quite often TT has told me to take turns that don't follow the signposted route of where I'm going but it's done a good job of getting me there and probably quicker than the offical route.
I don't agree that common sense should be needed to operate this system, the common sense should have been provided by the developers and testers. I also think that having out of date maps is unacceptable, if pocket gps can release a monthly update of safety cameras why can't the commercial organisations that produce maps release regular updates, instead of forcing you to pay to upgrade to the latest routing software instead.
I think that most of the people on this forum are well educated about how sat nav works and why it has some of the problems it does, but most people aren't and just expect it to work.
Hi Trev , beg to differ on that one , I find just following just the voice directions can lead to confusion (I'm easily confused) , IMO the map , especially on roundabouts , is more accurate , or maybe I drive more slowly , any other opinions ?
Bill .
Joined: 24/06/2003 00:22:12 Posts: 2946 Location: Escaped to the Antipodies! 36.83°S 174.75°E
Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2005 3:52 pm Post subject:
Tricky2005 wrote:
I don't know wether anyone noticed but when she went down one of the dead ends you could quite clearly hear TomTom say "Turn around when possible" which implies she had actually taken a wrong turn
I agree. If the unit knew that the driver had to turn around then it knew she had gone down a dead end road and therefore there is no way it would have tried to route down that road in the first place.
I bet this woman was taking the next available left turn (be it a road, driveway, farm track, carpark, petrol station, cliff etc) when she heard "In 300 yards, turn left".
Two friends claim that my Garmin took them down a dead end road into a park then told them to turn around, but looking at the tracklog the reality is that they made a left turn about 150 yards before the turn that was indicated. _________________ Gone fishing!
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i have had that as well near oxted ,the road was jammed up so i decieded to take a detour ended up on a farm track ,car was a ittle worse off after crater after crater was driven though ,and not getting stuck 
(not that I'm implying that women shouldn't be behind the wheel of course 
