Dont always trust your sat nav

jeffmossy

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Dont always trust your sat nav

How many of us have been there and got the badge ? I have more than once :Surprised_Face_Emoj


 
I trust my satnav implicitly, even if I do have to stop and turn the page over, but if I want to go on a mystery tour, I rely on Tom Tom!:Crystal_Magic_Ball:
 
according to YouTube, that video is dated 2010 but I wonder if matters have improved that much with satnavs?? I've ended up on roads that are "difficult" in the last couple of years - often not so much width or passing room, but due to overhanging trees - one of which knocked my Truma cowl off
 
We carry a couple of sat nags with us a TomTom and a Garmin. When in Italy and set them both on home on the same settings there was nearly 200mls difference in them.
 
A motorhome trip wouldnt be a proper adventure if your sat nav didnt take you down the odd goat track. Funniest one that happened to me was peak season and our first visit to St Croix de Verdon in Provence (and our first European tour). I blindly followed the Tom Tom down an impossibly steep narrow road into the village. I knew it couldnt be right but I went down all the same. Realising it was impossible and looking like a dead end where there was just a pedestrian area I tried to turn around where another road joined this one. At an impossible angle I thought we were going over. Then a lady ran out of one of the shops at the bottom of the hill and waved at us to come down. The only way through was through the narrow pedestrian alley. All the stall holders, bars and cafes had to move their tables and goods to let the stupid Ingleeeese through. I smiled and waved as best I could whilst cursing Basel Fawlty style under my breath at "Jane" and vowing to drop kick the thing into the middle of the lake as soon as we were out of sight.
 
On one occasion in France arriving at a junction, the road we wanted to go was closed, no diversion shown and after a couple of attempts, sat nav took us back to this junction.

Just then a white hightop long wheelbase van arrived and carried on through the closed road sign. This was my cue for 'if he can go so can I moment'.
Couple of miles later, turned into to his house and driveway. We carried on and eventually came across the construction machinery and realised we couldn't get past but there was a gate into a corn field running alongside. The corn cobs were up to the side windows but carried on as we were running parallel to the road, only the crash barrier between it and us.

As luck would have it, about a half mile along the field, we met a car coming the other way. Must have been a local as he turned in to a break in the corn to let us past. About another half mile we spotted a gate and managed to get back on the road with a sigh of relief. This prepared us for other incidents and now laugh it off as an adventure and a talking point at meets.

Cheers,
Alan
 
Sometimes the sat navs are better than us ........................ honest.

Me being the smart-arsed clever bugger that i am decided that i knew better than the Garmin Camper a few years back in Meung-sur-Loire and followed my sense of direction.

Right in the centre of the town which is narrow the Garmin was telling me to " turn left then left again " which i knew was completely the wrong direction and taking us away from the aire.

I could see the " P " for parking and i knew it was " just over there " as i announced to the wife.

Then we got to the corner / turning that the Garmin was quite obviously and correctly trying to keep me away from.

14 shunts to get round that corner and i remember every single inch ...... oops sorry centimetre of it as i had half of France behind me in cars and several children on mopeds trying to get past me.

Every time i moved forward EVERYONE moved forwards with me then when the reversing lights came on that`s when the shouting and pipping of horns started.

It was that tight we couldn`t open the doors to get out, the mirrors were folded in most of the time and you couldn`t have put your hand between the motorhome and the corner walls.

Probably only took a few minutes but believe me that was the longest few minutes of my life and thankfully not a scratch on the motorhome.
 
Issoire, France.
Has many ring roads or so the SatNav thinks,
A bit like Taxis in some cities Go round in circles to get a bigger fare.
Also there are some narrow roads with very tight turn ins.
 
We have farming. Why does it occasional send us off a main road through some obscure area when it is set on quickest route and not most direct?
there should be an extra setting along lines of keep to main road me thinks!!!!
 
Carrerasax;n17774 said:
We have farming. Why does it occasional send us off a main road through some obscure area when it is set on quickest route and not most direct?
there should be an extra setting along lines of keep to main road me thinks!!!!

Almost certainly because the speed limit on the sometimes very minor roads is the national speed limit and you can therefore (theoretically) gain 10 seconds against using a shorter main road route that has a lower speed limit. Garmin can be extremely aggressive in the quest for speed, to the extent of routeing one through laybys for which they have no speed limit data (so assumed to be national speed limit) rather than remaining on the main road.
 
Sat Nav is programmed for hight and width and is usually good. But one day in France I said to my other half: "did you see a sign back there that said height less than 2.7m?". "Err, no."

So we carried on. "There's another one". "No, that was width. The Sat Nav is happy".

So we carried on. "Ah, that'll be the low bridge then, just ahead.....". "Bugger"
 

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