Had to laugh today, as I drove along Ipswich Motorway (SE Qld) through the roadwork.  Electronic sign with the message "Roadsworks, please read the signes, your GPS won't work"

All very well, if you happen to be looking at the electronic sign.....

Maybe a reference to intersections and/or exits being closed or changed that the GPS doesn't "know about"

Your not wrong Jimricho, exits dissappeared, new exits appeared, "Karen" thought we were on "service roads" - etc, etc. Fortunately, knew where we were going (but they have moved the Esk exit from the left to the right) We had only been talking about it (the fact the GPS would not know what was happening) minutes before we saw the sign

MMMM. my mum (85yo) told Karen to "shut up, i am talking" once. I have not put Karen and mum in the same vehicle since.

I too have a Garmin but I usually "mute" Karen unless I'm specifically following her directions. Judging from some of the anecdotes I come across it seems many GPS users don't understand the limitations of these devices.

Our GPS has nearly ended up out the window on more ocassions than I care to rememeber, but we think we have 'her' name down pat - Suzie, but quite often, it is Suzie Wong!!!

You can't blame your GPS if there is new roads and your GPS has not been upgraded , if they have the right information programed in they they will always perform

brickies wrote:

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You can't blame your GPS if there is new roads and your GPS has not been upgraded , if they have the right information programed in they they will always perform

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Sorry to disillusion you brickies but my Tom Tom, which I no longer own, I now have A Garmin.  My Tom Tom with the latest map update at the time told me to turn into a paddock full of sheep on a perfectly straight road without any turn offs for well over 60klms.

 

Our GPS is called Sally.   She's not too bad but does get the occasional route wrong.   Has come in handy in the cities though.   Give me the outback anyday.

Ma one nibble at the bush and you sure don't want to go near big cities , drove to the gold coast 6 mts. ago don't want to go there again but would go bush tomorrow

we were driving along in SA one day on our way home, happily following "Vicki" and then all of a sudden she wants us to turn around and go the way just came, for no darn reason, ..

You are on the money there brickies.  The coast from Mackay down to Kiama will be a no go zone for us when possible.

We had two glorious weeks in Chinchilla and then had to go over to the coast, we got to Gympie and thought there are too many people, too many cars, too many trucks and went and found a little "freebie" as far away as possible from suburbia.

I find them great in Metro areas --- but do not trust them in rural or regional
nothing like a upto date Hema map for these areas

Coyotte

The GPS are programed from a master map which may have included proposed roads or road that have been officially closed , WE live in a huge country all in all they get it right most of the time if it tell you to drive into a river and you follow it command you should hand in your license in

brickies wrote:

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The GPS are programed from a master map which may have included proposed roads or road that have been officially closed , WE live in a huge country all in all they get it right most of the time if it tell you to drive into a river and you follow it command you should hand in your license in

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I suppose we should tell that to the foreign tourists who blindly followed the instructions from their GPS and ended up down some outback dirt track where they became hopelessly bogged and needed to be rescued.

 

I take it John you are not a fan of GPS

brickies wrote:

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I take it John you are not a fan of GPS

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I find them very useful but do not take their instructions as gospel.

 

i am one of the poor unfortunates that has to commute each day on the Ipswich motorway. each day you wonder if the road will be still in the same place it was yesterday. Am certainly looking forward to the day when i hitch up my van and head bush

These gadgets are usually programmed overseas somewhere, by people who've never left their own country. They base it on survey maps and satellite images. My "Tom" is a dirty little bugger who tries to mislead me into the scrub where there is no road. Probably a surveyed road which was never developed. If you have a navigator sitting in the passenger seat next to you reading the map, it's a lot easier to compare information from the GPS. When you're on your own and depending on the damn gadget when you're in a strange place, it could lead you to even stranger places. I check the map before I take off, and again when I stop for a break, and put the information in my own memory banks and match it up with Tom's information. I've upgraded Tom, free online recently. Don't ask me how I did it, because it used to cost about $140. However, I did it. We just can't take anything for granted. Do your own preparation to be on the safe side.