Monday, October 31, 2011

No longer a sat nav virgin

Paignton Pier on the English Riviera on a wet October afternoon.
We went to visit Younger Son and Fiancée in Paignton on Saturday and borrowed Son-in-law's tom-tom. I've never had one before so it was a novel experience. She was quieter than I expected but it was fairly straightforward until we reached the first sign for Paignton.

'Turn left in 450 yards,' she said.
'Didn't Younger Son say we should ignore the first sign?' I asked.
'We'd better take this turning if the sat-nav says.'
'You mean you're not going to argue with her directions?'
'No.'
'You argue with me when I tell you which way to go. You say, "Are you sure?"'
Husband just smiled; he'd already taken the left turn.

I sat back and sulked.

A short while after we came to a crossroads. Miss Clever Dick said, 'Turn right.'
Husband turned right. Sat-nav was quiet for a minute as if thinking then she said, 'do a U-turn.'
When we got back to the crossroads she told us to go straight ahead - which would have been turn left not right originally. She got it WRONG!

But did she say sorry? Not a word of it. Just 'do a u-turn,' no explanations or apologies for her mistake. Not even an acknowledgement that she'd been in error.

I sat back and smirked. Huh.

4 comments:

Katney said...

Interesting. Our Tom-Tom sometimes gives us interesting suggestions, but then, we sometimes get into some interesting places. It says "Turn Around When possible."

When I was two or three miles away from Silver Falls on the road through Mt. Rainier Nat. Park, it told me to turn around, go out the other park entrance (that I had come from some 20-25 winding miles earlier) go out to the towns on the other side of the park, along to the main highway, and up to the park entrance the other side of the falls.

This kind of talk really frustrates my son-in-law, whose GPS says "Recalculating....Recalculoating." when he ignores it. Mine simply bemuses me, as I usually have directions printed out anyway.

Ole Phat Stu said...

But imagine the poor folk in Livingston County, Michigan, whose SatNavs keep telling them to "Go to Hell" ;-)

At 42°26′05″N 83°59′06″W btw :-)

Furtheron said...

never use ours - I just end up shouting at it... no point. Using a map is righting out the route has worked for the last 30 years I've decided to stick with that approach, only person to blame then is me!

Liz Hinds said...

I much prefer maps and my totally reliable judgement, katney.

We won't be buying our own, furtheron!