When SatNav attacks!
2007-02-05
So on Friday I ended up leaving the office, doing a customer site visit (for the second time in as long as I've been there). I asked yell.com for the route, which was fine, but then my colleague offered to lend me her TomTom, which seemed unlikely to do harm.
I told it the customer's postcode. At least, I tried to. It was a double-digit postal district, and apparently one the machine didn't recognise, since every time it filtered its list to expect a letter, having put the space in between the two digits. But its owner says that it's fine, and that's the sort of thing it always does.
The next sign of a potential problem is on the journey itself, when the device tells me to keep right on the dual carriageway. I was expecting to leave at that junction, taking the A11 to avoid the bulk of Cambridge: it's the course I had plotted by eye, and Yell had agreed. TomTom wants to stay on the A14 though. For a moment I'm torn between following my instincts (which don't have access to anything like the quality of database that the SatNav has) and my static route on a piece of paper I can't currently stop to read, or trusting the technology, which can at least adjust for mistakes if I make them, and give me directions even while I'm driving.
So I stay on the A14, take the next exit, and get thrown into the near side of central Cambridge. I hate driving in Cambridge: half the damn road is marked over for buses and cycles (who insist on driving on my part anyway) and the pedestrians and cyclists seem to have little or no sense. I'd rather drive in Central London (where at least the pedestrians are smart enough to force their way across roads in packs).
"In 300 yards, turn right, and you will be at your destination." Except that by my reckoning I'm still a good couple of miles short of my destination, and I've seen none of the features that the customer's address would suggest. I look out for the right, and there doesn't appear to be one. I turn around at the next opportunity (more or less: one of the main things I'm bad at as a driver is making opportunities to turn around). I go back: the turn is a tiny driveway, and the address indicated is what seems to be the back gate of a walled estate. Not right.
So now I'm lost. Although there's a road atlas (or three) in the car somewhere, I've no idea where. I have the Yell directions, but I'm miles from where they go. I find somewhere to stop and try teaching the TomTom the customer's address manually, but it doesn't like that either. In the end I break out in a random direction looking for one of the major roads I recall from the map, and eventually find it by vague detective work on road signs.
The TomTom (I'm sure other ones are similar) is a nice gadget. It's surprisingly unobtrusive, and very helpful: even on routes where you know the way it's still helpful to have an easy count of how many miles to your exit, and so on. I also like the way that because it's plotting a route that always has your current position as start point, if you leave the intended route (for an impromptu detour, or because you missed a turning) it'll plot a new one, that initially will consist of turning around and getting back onto the previous route, but eventually will find a genuine way around.
And in its defence, the customer had recently had their postcode changed. My colleague was adamant that the suppliers had trouble with that postcode when we tried to provide the service, so 'it wasn't TomTom's fault'. I didn't point out that as the person responsible for keeping its database up to date, she was saving it by taking the bullet...
Incidentally, the TomTom didn't have a compass. I tried to see if I could confuse it by turning it sideways, but it deduced my facing from my direction of movement, and the display remained the same. Putting TomTom the right wrong way up is more likely to confuse you than him.
I told it the customer's postcode. At least, I tried to. It was a double-digit postal district, and apparently one the machine didn't recognise, since every time it filtered its list to expect a letter, having put the space in between the two digits. But its owner says that it's fine, and that's the sort of thing it always does.
The next sign of a potential problem is on the journey itself, when the device tells me to keep right on the dual carriageway. I was expecting to leave at that junction, taking the A11 to avoid the bulk of Cambridge: it's the course I had plotted by eye, and Yell had agreed. TomTom wants to stay on the A14 though. For a moment I'm torn between following my instincts (which don't have access to anything like the quality of database that the SatNav has) and my static route on a piece of paper I can't currently stop to read, or trusting the technology, which can at least adjust for mistakes if I make them, and give me directions even while I'm driving.
So I stay on the A14, take the next exit, and get thrown into the near side of central Cambridge. I hate driving in Cambridge: half the damn road is marked over for buses and cycles (who insist on driving on my part anyway) and the pedestrians and cyclists seem to have little or no sense. I'd rather drive in Central London (where at least the pedestrians are smart enough to force their way across roads in packs).
"In 300 yards, turn right, and you will be at your destination." Except that by my reckoning I'm still a good couple of miles short of my destination, and I've seen none of the features that the customer's address would suggest. I look out for the right, and there doesn't appear to be one. I turn around at the next opportunity (more or less: one of the main things I'm bad at as a driver is making opportunities to turn around). I go back: the turn is a tiny driveway, and the address indicated is what seems to be the back gate of a walled estate. Not right.
So now I'm lost. Although there's a road atlas (or three) in the car somewhere, I've no idea where. I have the Yell directions, but I'm miles from where they go. I find somewhere to stop and try teaching the TomTom the customer's address manually, but it doesn't like that either. In the end I break out in a random direction looking for one of the major roads I recall from the map, and eventually find it by vague detective work on road signs.
The TomTom (I'm sure other ones are similar) is a nice gadget. It's surprisingly unobtrusive, and very helpful: even on routes where you know the way it's still helpful to have an easy count of how many miles to your exit, and so on. I also like the way that because it's plotting a route that always has your current position as start point, if you leave the intended route (for an impromptu detour, or because you missed a turning) it'll plot a new one, that initially will consist of turning around and getting back onto the previous route, but eventually will find a genuine way around.
And in its defence, the customer had recently had their postcode changed. My colleague was adamant that the suppliers had trouble with that postcode when we tried to provide the service, so 'it wasn't TomTom's fault'. I didn't point out that as the person responsible for keeping its database up to date, she was saving it by taking the bullet...
Incidentally, the TomTom didn't have a compass. I tried to see if I could confuse it by turning it sideways, but it deduced my facing from my direction of movement, and the display remained the same. Putting TomTom the right wrong way up is more likely to confuse you than him.
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