Can you trust Sat Navs? James May's perspective | Earth Science
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ต.ค. 2024
- Don't trust the Sat Nav! Speaking from experience, James thinks we shouldn't blindly trust a machine. Get a map!
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James May Q&A Extras
With his own unique spin, James May asks and answers the oddball questions we've all wondered about from 'What Exactly Is One Second?' to 'Is Invisibility Possible?'
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The ironic thing is James would probably get more lost with his sense of direction then the sat nav xD
+JugCityKid you do realize that's just his top gear persona, right? it's a character.
+JugCityKid don't make a laugh of el Captain Sense of Direction :D
What he says is... kinda bullshit. Newer navigations allow you to view map making it a digital map instead of some weird looking from 100000 miles above view. Also, paper map doesn't come with traffic informations which are useful if you suddenly have to go around because bridge fallen on motorway. There is also option to just press a button to find a restaurant/toilet/gas/etc NEAR your route and close to you.
he says "look at a map", he didn't say which one. I always look attentively at the map... on my GPS
What's this? James May giving us advise on traveling to unfamiliar places? Bold move, James. Bold move.
Its advi *C* e...
It's nice to actually hear him have a rant. Usually, on Top Gear, when he goes on for a bit, it usually fades to black and says something like "A long time later" when I'm actually interested in what he has to say.
People learn from their mistakes, James must be a genius when it comes to navigation
Hehe.. My Sat Nav once told me to 'do a U turn and than do a U turn'.
I just figured it would be best to just go streight...
+barclay8472 it once said that I have to take right turn 3 times, than at the third right turn, go straight. Well, isn't it easier to just turn left?
KoeSeer probably a left turn restriction programmed in that area
I love my sat-nav but only after I have already worked out my route on a map. The san-nav is, as noted, great for finding small or obscure roads. It is also useful for figuring out how far you are from your destination and finding a hotel, restaurant, whatever once you get there.
One great leader said it best "Trust but verify."
Amuses me to hear Captain Sense of Direction talking about checking maps.
Still he has good points.
we went to a VW show once, it was only a couple of miles from the sea, the people camping next to us were surprised when we told them we just went to the seaside as they had just relied on sat nav, and didnt have a clue how close to the coast they were...
Why is the thought of James May using a sat nav with Clarkson's voice telling him what to do seem painfully amusing lol.
I want my sat nav to have James May's voice
I have to agree about the map thing. I have some travel anxiety type of stuff where I constantly need to check if I'm going the right way if I haven't been before but, if I've seen the general direction and such then I can orient myself with the map and be generally OK.
The best story I heard was of an Italian lorry driver who was going to Gibraltar. Because it is a British territory, his satnav had a bit of a meltdown and sent him on a ferry to the mainland. He didn't realise he'd gone wrong until he saw the port of Calais!
James is SO funny! I love these extra bits they added on.
A great prank to play on someone, is wait until they're getting petrol - when you're a passenger - and then change the "home" address on their satnav. Just replace their own post code with any random post code.
Only managed it once, but I live in Surrey - as do most of my mates, but about a month later they ended up in somewhere called Padstow. Feck knows where that is, but thankfully they still have no idea it was my fault they ended up there, haha.
I use sat nav to work out what routes I could use.
It is very useful not to get lost in foreign city - just put a point where you started and if you get lost use satnav to go back.
Last thing is driving up twisty road - you can see diagram of next corner and you can prepare car. If road is narrow and forestation around road is too dense and you can not see if it is light corner or tight one, you can see it on the map.
I also find it very useful when driving on familiar road under very dense fog. During normal situation you can remember things, but when you driving very slowly timing is wrong and you loose reference when to brake and evade pothole (problematic if road is dead straight).
I've experienced it in gameplay. They put a big arrow up on the screen telling you where to go, and as a consequence I miss experiencing everything between 'here' and 'destination', and also have no idea where I am once the arrow is gone.
It's an excellent tool/aid, to be sure, but I think it warrants caution against relying upon it entirely.
Honestly it is very useful in more ways then you might think. For example it shows where the road is broken up or where there are traffc jams and you can then choose to go around it. And the navgaton system will then ask you for the shortest/least gas/quickest road to follow. Its kind of brilliant really...
I agree James! I'm 27 and I always look at an overview of my route before I leave if I'm unfamiliar with where I'm going. I use my GPS more as a guide rather than orders from on-high.
The bright green background and James May placement works in such a way, that if you stare at the video long enough and look away; you'll see an outline anywhere you look.
True! hehehehe
I have a james mays ghost in my eyes LMAO.
Sorry for my english
Plus if you just follow what it tells you, you never learn to navigate for yourself.
Gps devices are incredibly usefull, and awesome. Your saying you cant see the hole map? you can zoom out on them, Also you can hook your phone up to them, so you can take calls directly threw them. You can store all your music on them so you have a type of ipod hooked directly to your car. Also if your in a area that you have no idea about, its the easiest way to get directly to where you want to get. I have a feeling you yourself have issues using them. But anyone i know that uses them lovesem
In a country like Japan where the streets basically have no name a sat nav is a must (no wonder the first commercial sat navs came here in 1993.) I remember circa 1996 I took a cab with no nav in Nagoya, gave the driver the written address and still he failed to get me to the destination (he got me to the right block though.) 20 years later I still think they really should adopt the named streets system (is that what is called?)
Best way to navigate:
Before setting off you have a look at the map and you memorize the names of a few of the bigger cities on your route. If you've got a good memory you can also memorize the names of the motorways and roads you're going to use. Then you just follow the arrows to the first big city on your route, from there to the next one until you get at the point where you find arrows to the place where you're actually going. And take the map with you, just in case. I've never been lost.
I drive mainly in Poland and I use GPS navigation for one simple reason. I drive fast. It warns me about speed cameras, railway crossings and even typical police control spots. It even sometimes informs about unmarked police cars showing some brief description or even a number plate and it shows the local speed limit. You just worry about what is happening in front of you and your line in the corners.
My satnav has the "Go straight ahead" instruction. Occasionally it uses it for joining motorways, but it used it once in Rugby when I needed to make a slight zigzag (as opposed to turning right or left).
I have the voice on, I like to think it lets me keep my eyes on the road.
James is right. My friend was taken 100 miles off course by a sat nav program but since she was not following along on a map she had no idea. I was going down an interstate at 70 mph when my sat nav told me to "do a U turn now, do a U turn now". What scares me is that there are people in this world who would try and do one.
Excellent video sir, I have the same speech in front of all my friends. Of course everyone else just goes back to their navigators even before they roll out of the parking lots. Main point: use them brains.
you can zoom out on the GPS James... (or some you can anyways)
It does come in handy with such things like when a highway splits, and you're in heavy traffic so you need to know which side of the highway you want, or which side of the highway the exit is on.
I do tend to agree with James on this, but I use my phone Satnav a lot for familiar journeys, simply because each day I need to take a different motorway exit according to traffic, and it's marvellous for that.
I also tend to trust it with unusual journeys on occasion, (applying at least minimal logic and audit) if it takes me well out of the way, because it's almost always taking me a clever route to avoid awful delays.
usually when it tells you to keep driving straight it's because there is a major road change (like 2 or 3 lanes opening up going to different routes) and it wants you to make sure you aren't in a turning lane. Sometimes it will do that on long straight stretches too just to remind you that it's there (because they get lonely)
I remembered the day I decided I would never use gps nav again. It was the first day I ever used it. I punched in an addresses and followed the nav, got to where I wanted to get with ease. I thought, wow this is amazing. Then I got back in my car to go home. and realized I had no idea how from where I was. I've followed chicken scratch directions into different states and have been able to get back without using them. This was the first time I had ever felt so helpless.
"Don't be a ponce" is an expression I promise to use six time this week. Thanks!
I agree with James. Paper maps dont have batteries to go dead. before everyone at work had smartphones, I drew strip maps on loose paper. They have all the necessary info, leave out the unimportant and you can still read them while answering the phone.
Even though we have GPS now for our car, I still like to check out (Google) maps before heading out so I have an idea of where to go and the best route. Sometimes GPS/Sat Nav doesnt point out the best route to take, it may have you driving down the buisest congested road in a city when a smart person would know to drive around it.
+Matt Brine Agreed, having a glance at some of the suggested routes and taking mental note of the significant roads/places along the route is a good thing. I used to be terrible at geographical knowledge and my mind would just blank out if you asked me to go to anything but the "usual places". Having forced myself to look the major towns/cities and road designations up before leaving made me a lot more confident to roughly get to the right region.
To navigate a city and get to a particular street well... I'll still leave that to the navigation but most of the traveling part if I'm not highly pressed for time I prefer to drive based on a list of major towns/roads to aim for and the signs along the road while the sat nav unit is turned on showing the map and speed.
The last part is perhaps crucial for me, I often drive any of a number of work owned cars from the main establishment to remote sites and the speed indicators on the dashboard are... all different. I don't fancy driving 90 km/h while it indicates 100 km/h and also don't want to "guess" how much above 100 I can push it without risking speeding tickets (especially when you're driving on paid time anyway, I won't deliberately go slow but also not risk tickets that I have to pay).
+Matt Brine in my city, it's easier to asked direction to motorcycle driver because they know all the simplest, shortest route to everywhere.
I agree so much about this!! I hate following sat nav myself apart from finding the exact small street once I'm there.
Thanks for saying it, James! Agreed with every word!
*brakes squeal in the middle of the highway* "Quick! What do I need to do next?"
"Carry straight on."
"Ya could'a warned me!"
These bits are always better than the actual video. :)
Never heard of this channel but definitely gonna sub:)
Some sat nav programs don't take into account local features. For example, if I'm driving to most destinations southwest of my home, it will tell me to drive west until a major north-south road. It does not realize there are 5 stop signs on that road. Four streets south, there is a road with only two stop signs, so that is the one I take, not the one recommended by the automatic routing software in it.
I had a good laugh at the prepare to carry straight on part. Hilarious.
James May - the grown-up voice of reason!
Personally, can't really afford (nor do I care to buy) any device with a GPS. However, last year I had to go to a few specific places (for college admission) in another town (Cluj) that is pretty big and that I didn't know at all. I studied the map (on Google Maps) the day before I left, as I knew that I would have no internet access. Not only did I get everywhere without a single problem, but I was able to offer directions to other tourists within my first few hours there. Maps remain awesome.
great explanation of gps from captain sense of direction
I've never used a map or a satnav as a driving aid. I've always just driven in the general direction of wherever I was going and hoped I ended up in the right place. it's worked so far
I use 2 Sat Navs; the car's builtin one, which is not so up to date and my smart phone which is up to date and has real time traffic info. So I zoom out on the car sat nav and set the view to be 2d North so that I can see where I am in relation and which direction I am heading.
I wasn't expecting to say this but I agree with Captain Sense of Direction. Although James, any half-decent GPS device should let you zoom out to see the overview if you don't know where you're going or haven't bothered to check on Google Maps before leaving.
I had a coworker who (after insisting we take a "road trip") set a his sat nav for Melbourne when we set off from Brisbane.
I don't know when it how many times that "In 325km, continue straight ahead" thing came up but at some point the other passengers and I designed to work out out rough position based not on the GPS itself but on how many times that came up after a certain point in the journey and the length of the journey (about 5,000-6,000km).
wait now im curious, is there a satnav jeremy clarkson voice download?
MaxVidyStudios on the app Waze there is an option to use all three of their voices for directions, but 75 percent of it is may
I would like to have Google maps on a satnav, where you can look at the whole route before hand and modify it if you want, such as avoiding a certain road. I find satnavs are too vague, such as I might want to avoid the M25, but the only option it gives me is to avoid all motorways. Also, it gives options for shortest/most economical route, but why not have an option for the standard most logical route. I don't want to go down the one car wide back roads just to save 10 miles of a journey.
I spent my first whole year in Kansas City with a row of Post It notes stuck across the dash of my car. I'm a lousy navigator at best, so before I went anywhere I'd pore over the map and write detailed directions.
This was before MapQuest or SatNav.
I still don't have a Sat Nav, but I almost always consult MapQuest or GoogleMap before I head out to an un-known-to-me location.
Well if you depend on the GPS too much you can get lost. Combining signs on street will make sure you're not lost. It all depends on the person, but using a map is not very convenient/efficient for navigation.
to me is not blind trust, is the tranquility of not having me to worry or be thinking about where I'm going ... then I can enjoy more of the drive with the music
I have often refrained from using a gps unless I really needed it. This often means I only use if when driving in a bigger unknown town/city
I thought captain slow was meant to not have a sense of direction? Why would we trust him?
James May loves romanian voice in his satnav.
I actually know exactly what he's talking about I once entered an address as being on "Cartel Street" instead of "Carter Street" and wound up on the wrong side of the city, and Dallas is a big city.
I told my satnav to take me to the 405 freeway once. It did, then it had me get off, do a U turn and get back on. If I didn't wised up it would have made me drive down the same stretch of freeway for hours.
"i know basically which way to go " this explains a lot :)
What is the Autonomous sensory meridian response?
90% of people forgot that civilian GPS signal has a built-in error of a few meters, though you might argue GLONASS or Beidou signals doesn't suffer such error, but remember most GPS receivers still only made to receieve Navstar GPS (that's the US one, FYI), GLONASS largely fall under disrepair, and Beidou? The Chinese will use it and they're pushing it into civilian market, but not likely to seriously challenge GPS soon.
The Galileo network? Well when does EU do things on schedule anyway?
3:20 "I find your lack of faith disturbing" is all I could think of after that.
on the Eyre Highway on a 1000km odd stretch between Eucla and Yalata there's no intersections. or turns. or anything. There's a few spots on the highway that are landing strips for the Royal Flying Doctor Service Air Ambulance. They actually land on the road.
2:34 Greetings for Italians ! :D
The voice is handy since you don't have to look at the display. This probably makes is safer too.
My GPS once almost sent my family on a course that was literally 50 km instead of 5, because it thought one of the streets was going the wrong way. Of course, I trusted it above my own judgement. Fortunately my family had better plans.
I dont use satnav. i use google maps to see where i have to go, then drive ther. Hate not knowing my final destination, but what way to turn at the next corner.
The way I do it is go in the general direction to another city. And switch on the satnav when I get to the general area and I am looking for the street.
In agreement it is an excellent tool for direction alongside looking out of your car window and storing your observation for future comparative memories. But commercial sat nav does not use 100% of the accuracy and possibilities from our orbital network.
Relativity Rocks!!
LMFAO!!! I agree with you entirely James! Unfortunately I do depend on my GPS more than I should, I pay close attention to what I type in though because here in Chicago, the city streets are labeled North, South, East, and West but the suburban streets are often not. So you put S on a street that would be south in the city but not in the suburb, you find yourself somewhere completely different!
I remember trying to navigate before satnavs were around.
... *shudders*
They do need babysitting tho, and you do need to ensure you're going to the right place, etc.
I absolutely rely on them to deal with traffic tho. Ok it's far from perfect now, but it's pretty good, and it will only get better.
When you know an area, you know the mistakes the satnav commonly makes. If you don't know the area, you're no worse off.
My parents always turn the satnav on, turn it to silent then ignore it for the first half of the journey until they no longer know the area. Its funny watching the satnav constantly recalculating when you choice your own route
i follow my sat nav when ever i cross a road or a street that i already familiar with or visited every once a month.. but never on a street that i have once visited.. i always look for sign and direction coz one time i followed, it guided me in a one way street.. good thing i never entered the street before i notice it was a one way road..
My phone's satnav does show an overview, and you can zoom/scroll around
Also if you prefer looking at a map. Then dont use a map at all, or a gps satalite. Pull out your phone and click maps. Then look at where you want to go, works the same as a old school map.
I totally Agree... Even though I'm young, I totally know how to use paperback maps, and also most of the time I don't really need navigation, I just look up where I'm going on google maps once beforehand, and that's about it. Well I do use navigation if I'm going to some rural village somewhere in the middle of nowhere, but I kinda know where it should be beforehand and use navigation only not to miss turn by accident (turning around on a country roads here in Canada can prove to be difficult especially if that particular road gets a lot of traffic)
Also I like Google Maps talking because it actually says which SIGN I should follow rather than some random turns...
If I'm going to some big city then I just trust signs on the highways, I don't really need navigation until i'm searching for the house inside the city. The only reason I would use navigation is to find some nice stops that I want to make on the way...
Driving in Australia you get the "In 325km, continue straight ahead" lots, which is always hilarious. So... after driving in a straight line for 325km, the GPS wants me to... drive in a straight line some more? YOU DON'T SAY! duuhhh.
For some reason there's a road in my navman that's named twice, Cumberland Highway, Cumberland Road. "Take the next exit left "Cumberland Highway, Cumberland Road" then turn left, Cuberland Highway Cumberland Road." Yes I heard you the first 3 times!
I had one telling me I was off roading about 100 meters off and parallel to the road. Kept telling me to turn around and get back on the road. If I had listened to it I would have wound up going the wrong way down another road.
I like SAT-NAV, but I never trust it. I'll use it for a long unfamiliar trip, but I always examine the route it picks out before I go charging off into the blind
I was going to Sydney one weekend and when I came back I put in the town I live in and it selected a different town in another state so we started going the wrong way and I realised it said a different state so I changed it, James May is Right in some way.
Miss james on this channelllll :(((((
one thing i find annoying. you get it with phone sat nav google and was. is when it tells you to say on the road you are currently on. like i was on the m1. going down to milton keynes. and we just gone past the bit were you join the m6. and the amount of times it keep telling me. stay on the m1, stay on the m1. i was like. ok i know that. simply tell me when to come off the m1. thats all i need to know.
I hate it if there are like 4 lanes and the satnav tells you to go left when it's already too late to change lanes and go left(especially at traffic lights)
I do not have a satnav in my car nor would ever want one, if a car I bought had one I would see about disabling the thing as fast as possible. I use maps and if I need to have a guide as to how to get some place I use one post-it with a "stick" map on it less bother than a mapbook when driving.
Yes I do use satellite maps at times but they tend not to be that up to date tho.
Mine has some basic voice control. I'm able to change the command to make it listen. It is ATMOS. Freaks my brother out. Also it's fun on new roads that are not on the map yet like Hwy 26 in Ontario. The new bit with the roundabouts is not there.
I have gps on my phone, but ive largely stopped using it due to it sending me in the wrong direction. Why i still use maps also. Im also one of the few people i know that can shoot an azimuth, find grid north, an 8 or 10 digit grid etc. Land navigation is becoming a lost art.
Cab driver for a living. Absolutely agree. GPS is a good navigation aid, but it's not the whole solution.
I do in the USA but it's the same concept anywhere.
Don't have sat nav or anyother gps system. I find my way with maps. Works perfectly fine. (25 year old woman) And if I do get lost I'll just ring at someones door (check for cars in the driveway and you'll know someone is home) and ask if they would like to give me directions. Say please and thank you and it works like magic!
I agree totally, James. I'm actually going to see if I can survive the rest of my life without ever owning or using a sat nav.
I will admit I don't know how to read a map and rely heavily on satnav but so far so good, I haven't ended up in France or on an airport runway.
James May is the absolute master
maybe southern Italy...I live in northern Italy and here you have to do what traffic lights say! :)
Disagree about GPS usage. This is what aircraft have been using for a long time. I use it on motorcycles and cars. Works wonders. However it should be used to augment your navigation not become your navigation. Always figure out where you're going first and then set up the GPS.
disagree on voice. voice is for when you don't want to look down and take or eyes off the road. in fact, a satnav without a picture would prevent most of the "accidents" people too reliant on them get into.
+GraveUypo I'd say it depends on whether its city driving or the bits out of populated areas with proper signs well ahead of intersections/ramps/roundabouts and time to make a choice on which lane to take etc.
For some people especially when there's road work being done with temporary redirections the contradiction of the voice and temporary signs that override the normal ones can cause mistakes. But for driving in populated areas I do agree with you, outside those regions its good enough though usually to know "in about 5 km I have to take the first exit at the roundabout" and so on and voice instructions can be muted in my opinion.
Now I want James May's voice on my satnav.
Totally agreed. But who's Kate?
We heat our houses before the frost. Why? Ease & comfort. Blindly follow instructions, why? Ease & comfort. "Not my fault, she told me wrong."
Captain sense of direction doesn't trust Sat Navs, I already know that. :D
i don't know if it's a good idea to follow captain sense of direction when it comes to navigation
The most annoying thing is when you are on a motorway and it tells you to keep right when the only thing on the left is a layby.