Reasons I do not want a satnav

[bunn]

I've just had a call from a bloke who is coming to our house to fix something.  He said he was going to follow his satnav to the village, which he confidently pronounces is 10 minutes away from his current location.

10 minutes later: panicky call: " Help!  Where am I!  I'm in a wood!'   Discussion concludes that his satnav has directed him to the wrong side of the river and  he is, therefore,  in the wrong county.   What's more, on enquiry it turned out that he did actually know where the village was, roughly - only because the satnav told him, he went another way.  Why do people believe what computers tell them, so confidingly?

If he has not been eaten by beavers, I expect another call when he gets to the pub, because satnav is no use in a village that only has one postcode anyway.

Give me a map any time.

Comments

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

The only use for satnavs is when you are by yourself in the car in an unfamiliar urban area, because, honestly, reading a map in heavy traffic is more likely to get you to crash than listening to a voice, even when it's wrong. (Even more so if you are in an unfamiliar country - a work colleague bought one to use in the hire car he used to drive alone around Australia, and for this it was fine.)

We once went to a cat show and were directed (by maps printed from Autoroute, which is just as bad) down a narrow road with passing places because it was a tad shorter than the main road. We were followed all the way by a 4x4. When we parked, the 4x4 drew up beside us, and a cheerful person stuck her head out and said, "You were using satnav, weren't you?"

Next time, we stuck to the main road.