By Peter Cochrane, 2 January 2007 11:05
COMMENT
Written and dispatched from Great Torrington, Devon, via a free wi-fi connection
For more than seven years now I have been using in-car GPS and have always found it an invaluable aid in almost every aspect of any journey. Being able to see approaching junctions or reductions from a dual to single carriageway well ahead of time and to find alternative routings in a jam or in rapidly slowing traffic are just two of the features I really value.
I don't think there is an aspect of GPS that I don't find useful at some time - it offers much more than just keying-in a location and following instructions. More recently units showing the real-time slowing of traffic and the creation of jams have become available. To my mind, this feature plus the addition of real-time auto-rerouting in response to such hazards and likely delays is the icing on the cake!
So where does all the bad press for GPS come from? I must admit the directions are not always perfect. So I always carry a map and have a mind-map of the UK and large swathes of the US.
When given GPS directions, I always ask: is that reasonable? If I find myself faced with a single-track road with grass down the middle, I get suspicious real fast. Likewise, when I get a new routing I check the logicality against my knowledge of the area and/or a map. This is not so, it would appear, for a lot of the so-called victims of GPS.
Recent press articles have attempted to sensationalise people being confronted by deep and impassable fords, being jammed in narrowing lanes which are little more than a cart track, or having a 90km journey turned into an 1,000km nightmare.
All of this prompted me to do two things. First, to conduct a simple experiment with the navigational setting on a standard GPS system. Second, to discuss the use of GPS with other users of various ages. My findings are not surprising!
By merely selecting options for the route such as 'shortest', 'fastest' and 'make maximum use of motorways options' in random combinations, the navigation advice varied from sensible to lunatic. And to my near complete dismay, most of the people with GPS I spoke with did not own a map or road atlas, and many youngsters didn't appear to have a mind-map of the UK either. No wonder people are getting lost!
Occasionally I get to use GPS on a boat and whilst it is a powerful tool I wouldn't want to try navigating without a set of up-to-date charts. But it appears that here too people have a go at doing so. All of this is crazy but not half as crazy as blaming the technology!
GPS works and it works well and like the much maligned mobile phone, it also saves a lot of lives every year.
But that doesn't mean I'm going to throw away my road atlas and maps for some time!
Comments
There are 12 comments. Join the discussion
1. Tom Hardie
Isn't it amazing how many people are prepared to abdicate responsibility for themselves because they are using some sort of technology!
It, unfortunately, goes to show that common sense is all too uncommon!
I have noticed an increasing trend for what I call "common sense" to be called "cynicism".
Add the word "discuss" to the last sentence and it sounds like an exam question!!!
2. David Bowler
I believe NASA have a policy of using three different computer systems for safety-critical functions, and looking for consensus across all three, or a majority 'vote' if necessary, as a way of eliminating wild (and fatal!) errors.
Peter seems to be using a similar method, GPS + Paper Maps + Personal Knowledge of Geography, either instinctively or perhaps consciously, given his engineering background.
Perhaps there is a fundamental pattern here. Perhaps all serious applications of IT should require a 3-way checking process, either within the system, or using external, 'real-world' checks. I wonder how many expensive IT disasters could have been prevented in this way?
3. anonymous
Where do I get a "mind-map"? I need one to check the "logicality" against "real fast"!
4. Nick Cole
GPS is only one of a range of tools, none of which are perfect. Reliance on that single device as in any sphere of operation or discipline is foolhardy. The most reliable device is a map or chart of an appropriate scale and the means to orient oneself, such as a compass, watch, etc.
These failures are not unique and in our technological world we must always learn and remember how to do things the hard or old-fashioned way.
5. anonymous
GPS gives you positioning information, but doesn't (as I understand it, anyway) tell you much about the terrain, the navigable routes or the traffic levels on those routes.
The bits that occasionally get you lost are the satellite navigation systems, which have their own in-built maps and use software to calculate routes to destinations based on current position provided by GPS.
Keeping maps in the car is an excellent practise, but only if you remember to keep the maps up-to-date - a 10 year old road atlas can be very misleading. It should go without saying that you also need to keep the stored maps in your SatNav system up-to-date.
6. Peter Cochrane
Tom = Spot on - and this all follows on from a growing inability to even do simple mental arithmatic, or assess problems in terms of what a reasonable solution or answer might be. No where in our society is this more vivid than in risk assessment.
I don't have a problem abdicating any responsibility to machines or another human provided the resulting solution is a good one. The reality is that all our technology is still infantile - our population is, in some respects, getting dumber - and we need to retain the ability to think at all problem levels.
Peter
7. Peter Cochrane
David = You are correct here - and the objective is to avoid common mode failures. In an ideal world the hardware and software of each of the three machines would be different too.
When I travel I have a digital watch, an analogue watch, my mobile phone and my laptop - the reason? Time zone changes, international date lines, and the potential for a single battery failure inducing a missed flight!
So in all my systems, and habits, I have multiple points of reference, info sources, and sanity checks.
And hey - this is the way I was tought as a youngster and as a professional engineer, but it is only common sens!
8. Peter Cochrane
Anonymous = The first requrement is a memory, the second is a network of friends, the third is experience, and fourthly some time spend reading and looking at maps ++++ . Peter
9. Peter Cochrane
Nick = The big problem with paper maps is that they are always out of date and take at least 9 months to be corrected.
They also present such a very limited subset of the info we actually need. Soon they will be relegated to the museum/dustbin of the past. But for now, we certainly need paper maps + GPS +++ to be sure we get a reasonable picture. Peter
10. Peter Cochrane
Anonymous Suffolk = For the moment you are almost right - some systems give real time traffic info plus reroutings to avoid slowing or jammed traffic. As for terrain info etc...it is only a matter of time. In the USA some sytems are already linked to street cameras at intersections and satellite cameras from above. We are actually getting there at quite a pace compared to the old paper world! Peter
11. anonymous
Oh dear! Peter Cochrane making excuses for software? Yes, of course, 'common sense' whatever that is should be applied - but are we being unreasonable to expect an aid like this to 'do what it says on the tin'?
12. Lisa
Getting lost is more fun with Navtones celebrity voices like the ones in the tomtom.