Satellite Navigation becomes "mainstream"

MikeB

Finally we have proof that Sat Nav is becoming a "mainstream" user commodity. Jeremy Vine from the UK BBC Radio 2 had a discussion on his prime time show about Satellite Navigation replacing paper maps today. This comes on top of Dixons advertising TomTom and Navman systems on peak time television.

Todays discussions were quite interesting with Jeremy being very impressed with the voice navigation, and the ability of the system to avoid traffic jams and re-route when the wrong turn was taken.

Also represented on the show were ITIS and Rick Mears posing arguments for and against the use of Satellite Navigation, particularly for use in off road situations. The general consensus was that this is good technology, though there were some fears of the US military control of the system.
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Mike Barrett
Editor, PocketGPSWorld.com

Pocketgps · Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 7:32 pm Post subject:

The show was very good, but the arguments against some points about taking your eyes of the road all of the time to view the system is not true,
I like most people listen to the voice most of the time, and also these systems must be great for delivery drivers with multi drops in an unfamiliar area, this must also apply to company rep's who work away from home so much, no stopping to pick up the map or AtoZ, surely this must be a great time saver as well, this is also over looking the safety camera help.

Best regards,

PocketGps

Howard · Occasional Visitor Joined: 04/07/2003 11:47:06 Posts: 9

Interesting Q&A. Also about the taxi drivers who now think the "Knowledge" will become redundant with the advent of Sat Nav.

Howard

barryd · Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 9:42 pm Post subject:

Thanks for pointing out this programme. Have just used "listen again" on the BBC website to listen to it. You can reach it from this page:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/vine/
It'll be there until next Thursday. Scroll forward to 01:27 to hear Sally "Traffic" enthusing about her sat nav (perhaps we should lobby her to record alternative voice prompts for TomTom) then to 01:34 to hear the main article.
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Barry Davies

dibble · Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 11:59 pm Post subject:

I shall have a listen to thr program later but I have to say that this must be a way forward.

I have to go to York in a few weeks time and have booked a hotel right in the middle of the city. I don't have a clue where this place is but having played with my GPS system for a few weeks testing the re-routing etc I feel that I am confident now of letting the system tell me which way to go!

I feel (and the girlfriend feels) that this will save us aggro in the long term - lets face it you can't blame each other for going the wrong way, you can both blame the machine!! Laughing

We must have gadgets - how else can we evolve!!

Dibs
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Don't take life too seriously - you'll never get out of it alive!

alix776 · Posted: Fri Dec 17, 2004 10:06 am Post subject:

i managed to hear the whole program yesterday what ray mears said was very true as for the knowledge becoming redunant i doubt it what wasnt mentioned is that in a car satnav is a navigation AID maybe it will take over paper maps eventually but as of itis's md says it could help the highways agency route traffic a think that was an overstatment as the computers required to do this is stillalong way off and nav system would have to know the destniation of everysingle jornney of every veihcle on the road so it looks like big brother may come in our lives morethan it is now
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currently using aponia truck navigation on windows phone. Good bye IOS don't let the door hit you on the way out .

Oh the joys of being a courier.
device Lumia 950 xl

stuart · Posted: Fri Dec 17, 2004 2:18 pm Post subject: Sat Nav - BBC Radio 2

I listened to the whole programme whilst doing some courier jobs around the country. What empressed me was the courier who contacted Jeremy Vine to say he uses an Ipaq with a 1GB card and drive 200,000 miles a year around Europe with his Sat Nav. Thats alot of driving..... On a 24/7 basis, it amounts to 548 miles per day.......Unless my CoPilot voice guidence deafened me and I misheard. Anyway, I still take a road Atlas with me wherever I travel. Maps will still be required throughout the world, they are interesting to read during traffic jams...I haven't got TMC yet. Merry Xmas

Dave · Posted: Fri Dec 17, 2004 10:55 pm Post subject:

No you were correct, he did say over 200,000 miles a year which I did think was over excessive, and that works out to 547.94 miles a day if driving 365 days a year.

DavidW · Posted: Sat Dec 18, 2004 3:46 pm Post subject:

I thought Mike made a mistake when he wrote Rick Mears. The "survival" guy is Ray Mears, as Alix wrote.

David

jeta1 · Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2004 3:22 am Post subject: missing the point....

I'm sure we can all read maps, the point about GPS (which was missed by this report) is that you can establish where you ARE..... Reading a map to establish where you want to go is easy......when you are lost it is knowing where your are that is the problem....this has to be one of the main advantages of GPS and was not really reflected by this progam

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