They are pretty junky.
I took a work related trip from Sydney University out to Wetheril Park, out west today, and we used a GPS device (a Navman S35) on the way there. It was shocking.
The plotted route on basic function found the "shortest/fastest" route possible, which was a very convoluted series of turns and twists. The calculation speed and warnings for turns were very slow, to the point where you need to be driving significantly lower than the speed limit to actually catch the calculated changes. In addition, the update of location is also quite slow, and slightly off, since it was saying to make turns 100m away when it was probably only 30m infront.
The other issue in regards to the device is it doesn't really take into account for ease of using the route. At one point, it asked us to take a left-right turn. In order to take this left-right turn, it involved crossing three lanes of traffic immediately to get into the right hand turn lane, which in regular traffic would be neigh on impossible, not to mention it is illegal to cut across three lanes of traffic in the first place.
Interestingly though, it does do re-calculations if you miss its directions and it attempts to replot new paths to travel to your destination, but it will still try to steer you to what it believes is the best and shortest route, which, is not always the best one really.
On the way back I navigated with ease using the street directory and cut a good fifteen minutes off the travel time in the same traffic conditions using an alternative route to what the device gave us in the first place. I wanted to just use the street directory, but the driver wanted to play with the GPS.
So, in conclusion, they are pretty junky if you can read a map/have a navigator who can read a map. I think the only real advantage is if you are driving a route but your path is cut from say an accident or roadworks etc, you can turn off into a side street, and it can generate an alternative pathway to your destination. Of course, you can still do this anyway with a map, it just requires you finding where you are.
I took a work related trip from Sydney University out to Wetheril Park, out west today, and we used a GPS device (a Navman S35) on the way there. It was shocking.
The plotted route on basic function found the "shortest/fastest" route possible, which was a very convoluted series of turns and twists. The calculation speed and warnings for turns were very slow, to the point where you need to be driving significantly lower than the speed limit to actually catch the calculated changes. In addition, the update of location is also quite slow, and slightly off, since it was saying to make turns 100m away when it was probably only 30m infront.
The other issue in regards to the device is it doesn't really take into account for ease of using the route. At one point, it asked us to take a left-right turn. In order to take this left-right turn, it involved crossing three lanes of traffic immediately to get into the right hand turn lane, which in regular traffic would be neigh on impossible, not to mention it is illegal to cut across three lanes of traffic in the first place.
Interestingly though, it does do re-calculations if you miss its directions and it attempts to replot new paths to travel to your destination, but it will still try to steer you to what it believes is the best and shortest route, which, is not always the best one really.
On the way back I navigated with ease using the street directory and cut a good fifteen minutes off the travel time in the same traffic conditions using an alternative route to what the device gave us in the first place. I wanted to just use the street directory, but the driver wanted to play with the GPS.
So, in conclusion, they are pretty junky if you can read a map/have a navigator who can read a map. I think the only real advantage is if you are driving a route but your path is cut from say an accident or roadworks etc, you can turn off into a side street, and it can generate an alternative pathway to your destination. Of course, you can still do this anyway with a map, it just requires you finding where you are.
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