Satnav risk targeted by new consultation.

mostdom

Just read this in Fleet News Journal.

GJF · Frequent Visitor Joined: Feb 08, 2007 Posts: 894

I think this is a positive move forward, it clearly states on this DfT site:

zardoz · Lifetime Member Joined: Jan 03, 2006 Posts: 76

The most dangerous hand-held device used while driving is a CIGARETTE. When the powers-that-be decide to make those hands-free or better still ban them outright, then I think they might have the ethical right to start meddling with other driver distractions.

Let's see.. "drug (nicotine) affected driving" or "incorrect routing information".... Wonder which is the more dangerous?

Z.

Border_Collie · Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 2:52 pm Post subject:

Border_Collie · Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 2:55 pm Post subject:

Sat Nav evidently NOT a risk. See HERE
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neil01 · Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 3:34 pm Post subject:

Lost_Property

As a sat nav user, I have certainly found that in general my stress levels while driving have been reduced. I can't however say that the distances travelled have been reduced.

One thing I did notice about the link was the regular mentioning of TomTom, so I wonder just how independent it was? Was the brief to come up with something positive for the sponsors of the report.

Not that I am in anyway suggesting that TomTom does not have the effects quoted, just that sometimes statistics are used to prove something when the reality is quite different. I can remember a case where identical engines were fitted to two cars, one in the Sporty (for the day) Capri which was genrally reliable, but the other in a family saloon was not. This had the 'experts' foxed for some time as it was the Capri which was generally thrashed, and you would expect more failures as a result. This apparrently perverse result turned out to be an oil supply problem at lower revs. As for the lower accidents, I wonder whether the type of driver who chose to use Satnav during the period from which their data was take into account, and whether the accident rates of those drivers before they used satnav was used as the control - or if the control was drivers who don't use satnav.

PS I am (hopefully obvious) a fan of SatNav, it is just that I hate 'spin' - in my eyes it devalues any genuine conclusions to such a degree that they become so suspect to be of little or no value.

MaFt · Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 4:04 pm Post subject:

Border_Collie · Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 5:14 pm Post subject:

GJF · Frequent Visitor Joined: Feb 08, 2007 Posts: 894

Referring back to the first mostdom post

Dft Document reads:

classy56 · Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 7:18 pm Post subject:

When I first started using satnav a few years ago, I had a similar experience in deepest Wales, I was directed down a road that was as wide as the M25, suddenly a sign appeared warning me of a 'single track road with passing places',.....Ok it was 2am and I am used to such roads, so carried on until I got wedged on a bend on the very,very narrow road.

BUT upon looking at the paper map after the event I would have still taken that route, it looked fine on paper!

That is the only time it has done me wrong and I still don't blame it Wink

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GJF · Frequent Visitor Joined: Feb 08, 2007 Posts: 894

classy56 wrote:

mostdom · Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 9:02 am Post subject:

Negativly, we could end up with a user ajusted interface, where you the user has to adjust the road-use settings before setting off.
Settings like road priorities for motorways, toll roads, A roads, B Roads, Side roads, Back roads, cobbled Roads, etc.etc.

Imagine the grief the sat-nav companies will get when people are still being led down country roads. It would be their get out clause.
(well you didn't set the settings right)...

Done right though could be a real bonus to the user. Sure will seperate the good companies from the bad ones.
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HERE LIES PND May it rest in peace.
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MikeB · Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 11:09 pm Post subject:

MikeB · Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 11:14 pm Post subject:

nuttynurse · Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2007 3:35 am Post subject:

The policies and the hypocrasy of successive governments is the true cause of the chaos that exists on the roads today yet the motorist remains the easy victim of politicians, why?, because we are the most lucrative source of income for the treasury. You would think to hear all the recent talk of road congestion, of pollution and of the need to finance better public transport that there had only just been a realisation that these problems existed and that our noble government where immediately seeking to tackle these issues as a matter of national urgency. What rubbish! Governments going back generations have levied ever increasing taxes on motorists in one form or another justifying this on the need to either build new roads, to improve public transport, or to ease congestion, yet we have some of the worst and most congestive roads in europe and an absolutely next to useless public transport system.

Consider how we now have national distribution networks around the country rather than the local services we once had. Everything has become centralised and therefore we need large fleets of lorries to take and fetch to abattroirs, dairies, factories of one sort or another. My brother is a lorry driver and travels over 400 miles a day to deliver milk to supermarkets so that we can drive out of town to buy our milk rather than having the milk delivered to our door. Animals are transported hundreds of miles to be killed and butchered so that their meat can be driven yet more hundreds of miles to be delivered to supermarkets so we can again drive out to collect it rather than take a pleasant walk to our local butcher. Vast industrial estates have taken over from local business, yes, you guessed it we all need to drive now in order to get to work. School's? We all need to drive our kids to school now because the best schools are 10 miles away from where we live and we need our big gas guzzling 4 W/D's to get there, why? because we need to protect our children from being hit by other parents driving 4 W/D motors. Of course we have to do this journey during rush hour traffic and add to the chaos by parking on the zig-zag and double yellow lines outside the school gates because it would be to healthy for our kids to allow them to walk a few hundred yards otherwise. The small community post office come village shop now killed off by government policy necessitating that we now have our pensioners having to have bank accounts and therefore needing to travel by car to get to the bank because public transport is inadequate for most people's needs. Billions have been taken off us but public transport remains as bad to day as its always been. You can't get a return ticket before 9.00am can you?

The road networks are becoming increasing diabolical! Complicated junctions with multitudes of traffic lights, lanes and signposts. Small almost unseeable roundabouts marked only by white painted lines or little white bumps in the road is it any wonder that a sat nav get confused, I know I do. You obviously need a degree in stupidity to plan a road these days and a degree to understand how to drive on it. I think more is spent planning them than building them. The government should be worried about how many times you have to take your eyes off the road just to read the blooming signs or to try and make sense of where you are on it.

They say they are concerned now about people being distracted by a satnav in the car. Its a blooming god send. If they are so concerned about people paying attention to driving why are they placing so many distractions and threats on the road for us to comprehend. We are all becoming increasingly paranoid about speed cameras and mobile lasers, so much so that we are needing to fit more and more devices to our vehicles in order to stay alert and safe from the threat of losing our license for having strayed just a few miles over the limit. Whilst billions more are being taken from the car driver in terms of fines, still precious little of this is going back to improving our roads or public transport links. By outlawing satnav and speed camera detection systems they must surely hope to rake in even more millions by watching us from space whilst we drive from A to B. The best part of it is we will all need to pay hundreds of pounds to have little black boxes fitted in our cars for the priviledge of making it easier for the government to fine us not just if we fail to notice the gatso or mobile laser, oh no, they can be dispensed with. With eyes in space they will be able to monitor us just about anywhere we go and fine us for the slightest speed violation. Will you be able to afford travelling to work on the motorway at peak time or will you be forced to travel down minor roads because you are on the minimum wage? We are being conned!!!

If you haven't already loaded the pocketgps database into autoroute and visibly see all the various speed traps it depicts try doing so, its horrendous. How governments can claim this isn't about revenue is beyond me. However, once you have accepted this act and are monitored from space you give up any right to anonymity. What ever happened to democracy and the right to privacy? Don' t you think it worrying, I do. Its getting more like Logan's Run and such.. 8)

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