[time-nuts] Problems with Garmin - maybe we should cut themalittle slack

shalimr9 at gmail.com shalimr9 at gmail.com
Sat Jan 1 16:42:17 UTC 2011


I thinks that's because the algorithms used work well most of the time, simply not all of the time. You can call it sloppy work if you want, or you can call it an example of effective business model: provide a tool that will satisfy 95% of a perceived (or real) need for the price of an average Christmas present. It is called value pricing and has nothing to do with development costs.

In my neighborhood, the Navteq map assumes that there are 100 houses in each street. There are actually about 50 houses in each street (there are about 5 or 6 streets the same length), so as I live at number 47, the Navteq map puts me in the middle of the street instead of being the last house on that street.

It sounds ridiculous, but if someone was not able to find my house while using a GPS with these maps, I would question the person rather than the GPS. 

The situation would be considerably better if all streets and houses had clearly visible names and numbers, but that's another issue.

Didier

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

-----Original Message-----
From: "Richard W. Solomon" <w1ksz at earthlink.net>
Sender: time-nuts-bounces at febo.com
Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2010 22:08:11 -0700 (GMT-07:00)
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement<time-nuts at febo.com>
Reply-To: "Richard W. Solomon" <w1ksz at earthlink.net>,
	Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
	<time-nuts at febo.com>
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Problems with Garmin - maybe we should cut them
 alittle slack

I add just one more comment ...

Most of the destinations I program in, by address, work well.
Most of the time, I get led right to the door. So why can't 
it figure out where I live ??

Just sloppy work, pure and simple.

73, Dick, W1KSZ


-----Original Message-----
>From: Horst Schmidt <horsts at iinet.net.au>
>Sent: Dec 31, 2010 10:04 PM
>To: time-nuts at febo.com
>Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Problems with Garmin - maybe we should cut them alittle slack
>
>Hi,
>
>  first, a happy and hopefully healthy New Year to all of you.
>
>I think, some of you are going slightly overboard, in what you expect a 
>$150 Dollar car navigator should do,
>I also don't believe some of you   you realise what exactly it was 
>designed  to do.
>
>It is not a device to accurately shoot a missile trough somebodies 
>toilet window and hit a specified turd in the bowl.
>
>It is designed to get you relatively easy and close to a specified 
>designation. preferably when used in a motor car
>
>This it does perfectly well.  It may be a few meters out from an exact 
>house number, but it got you there without you having
>to look at the map, (or worse get your spouse to read the map and 
>navigate you).
>
>It improves the road safety, especially at night time, when you often 
>don't see the street names and have to slow down to a crawl
>with a lot of cars bunched up behind you.
>
>The mind boggles if some of you think because the GPS is not 100% 
>accurate, The Fire brigade gets either lost, or tries to extinguish the
>  house next door to the burning one, just because the GPS is 30m out.
>  What you're actually are saying is: The Fire brigade is full of idiots.
>
>To sell an item for 150 or so Bucks,  on  can not  reasonably expect it 
>to be  as perfect than another item which sells for 100 grand or more 
>and nobody
>  except a few government institutions can afford it.
>
>Not every instrument is mad by Agilent for a cost which is prohibitive 
>to the normal punter.
>
>Just get back down to earth, a few years ago you had to learn how to 
>read a map, or follow the often useless instructions somebody else gave you.
>
>Now for hardly any money, you get to your destination  with least amount 
>of effort and a lot saver than before.
>
>Regards, Horst
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>> gonzo-
>> "A GPS is a precision device.
>>   A Navigator is a consumer device.
>>   To confuse the two is to fail to understand either."
>>
>> A navigator IS a GPS. Surveying GPSs may use carrier phase tracking or
>> whatever to get about 2mm accuracy. Just because it is optimized for navigation
>> instead
>>
>> of location accuracy and gets about 3m accuracy doesn't mean that a navigator
>> isn't a GPS.
>>
>>   Note that map accuracy has nothing to do with GPS receiver accuracy. Also
>> some mapping data has built in errors or incorrect POIs to identify the data in
>> case it is copied. For instance, one company's street mapping software I owned
>> had, in the small town I live in, a POI that said: "***** Institute Of
>> Technology"
>>
>> even though there has never been a school there and it was a actually closed gas
>>
>> station.
>>
>>                            -Arthur
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
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