A 5-minute traffic delay on the main road ahead so it reckons the lane is quicker, when in fact it's slower and a minor nightmare to negotiate? Dunno, I can only describe what has fairly recently happened to me a number of times.
Ed Self-Driving Cars: Pros, Cons, and Predictions
- Thread starter Cain
- Start date
Around here we are crisscrossed by so many little lanes its quite unbelievable and my satnav seems to be trying to make sure I've gone up and down all of them! One of the worse ones locally is the very, very steep lane directly off the main road, it is a single lane with a couple of passing places, at this time of year it is particularly lethal as it gets full of wet, slimy leaves that are worse than ice for slipping and losing traction. Seen people in tears trying to get up or down, and like most locals over the decades I've had to get into someone else's car to help them out. It's not as bad as it used to because a lot of cars now have these "hill start" features but the satnavs still love it - in terms of distance saves about a mile and half compared to a "detour" using more normal roads. Oh and it is a 40mph lane. Really would like to see 2 self-driving going opposite directions negotiate it.
autumn1971
Illuminator
My problem is that I just get all contrarian when a voice tells me what’s the best route.
I automatically get the “I know where I’m going” attitude and stop listening to the voice.
It’s a me problem
I automatically get the “I know where I’m going” attitude and stop listening to the voice.
It’s a me problem
I’m the opposite - you know the photos of a car driving into a river? That’s me if the satnav said to drive into the river who I’m I to question it?
Rolfe
Adult human female
There actually was that potential here a decade or more ago. It's still drawn that way on the free version of the OS maps.
Imagine you're approaching the village from the south-west on the A702, heading for a destination on the south part of Main Street. See that blue line, the Lyne Water? See how it seems to be crossed twice, once by the A702 itself, and once a little way south of that, by an unnamed road (actually Chapel Brae)? You can see how it appears that the more southerly crossing would be quicker? Right?
It's a ford. Here is how Chapel Brae ends. You'd need a tractor. Or a horse.
I don't know if anyone was actually stupid enough to try it. But I haven't seen a satnav suggest that for ages. Google maps certainly doesn't.
I can see how the behaviour you describe could be problematic. I can only say I've been all over the damn place using Google maps (via Android Auto) for more than a year, and 99% of the time it has been absolutely gobsmackingly on the nail.
Imagine you're approaching the village from the south-west on the A702, heading for a destination on the south part of Main Street. See that blue line, the Lyne Water? See how it seems to be crossed twice, once by the A702 itself, and once a little way south of that, by an unnamed road (actually Chapel Brae)? You can see how it appears that the more southerly crossing would be quicker? Right?
It's a ford. Here is how Chapel Brae ends. You'd need a tractor. Or a horse.
I don't know if anyone was actually stupid enough to try it. But I haven't seen a satnav suggest that for ages. Google maps certainly doesn't.
I can see how the behaviour you describe could be problematic. I can only say I've been all over the damn place using Google maps (via Android Auto) for more than a year, and 99% of the time it has been absolutely gobsmackingly on the nail.
A few years ago, my uncle was complaining about his sat-nav. I'm not sure if he was using Google Maps, or some other system.
He lived on a bluff over a lake. There was a road around the lake below his house. whenever he left the house, his sat-nav instructed him to drive forward out of his driveway, off the cliff, to reach the road below.
I think the solution was to set waypoints in his sat-nav.
It's been a few years, so (hopefully) that's been fixed. But it's the type of error that you wouldn't want to be the first to discover on a self-driving car.
Another story:
Several years ago, a group of us had a conference we were attending at a ski resort. None of the navigation programs could seem to find us a route to get there. It started out with the built in navigation in the rental car, which took us in a repeating loop that never found the destination. So we tried using the navigation on various cell phones (android and then apple) each of which took us into a slightly different loop. Eventually, we had to get directions from another lodge we passed.
He lived on a bluff over a lake. There was a road around the lake below his house. whenever he left the house, his sat-nav instructed him to drive forward out of his driveway, off the cliff, to reach the road below.
I think the solution was to set waypoints in his sat-nav.
It's been a few years, so (hopefully) that's been fixed. But it's the type of error that you wouldn't want to be the first to discover on a self-driving car.
Another story:
Several years ago, a group of us had a conference we were attending at a ski resort. None of the navigation programs could seem to find us a route to get there. It started out with the built in navigation in the rental car, which took us in a repeating loop that never found the destination. So we tried using the navigation on various cell phones (android and then apple) each of which took us into a slightly different loop. Eventually, we had to get directions from another lodge we passed.
EHocking
Penultimate Amazing
Self-driving car can’t even cope with a public car park (?)
(status is self-drive is yet to be determined)
(status is self-drive is yet to be determined)
Gulliver Foyle
Philosopher
As long as you're not living in urban sprawl, US style, it's more of a last 100 yards problem, which is scarcely one.
jeremyp
Philosopher
And I don't like negotiating busy streets full of cars as a pedestrian or cyclist. I don't like cycling past lines of parked cars whose drivers may open a door at any second or having to squeeze between them to cross the road. I don't like the proliferation of car parks and the concrete flyovers cutting through communities.
If you've got a heavy load to move, use your car. It's fine. But if everybody stops using their cars when they don't need to use them, our urban spaces would be much more pleasant.
Gulliver Foyle
Philosopher
I prefer the sheep personally. Unlike tourists they know to step out of the middle of the road.
Rolfe
Adult human female
I don't live in an urban space. I don't go into an urban space unless I really really have to.
Gulliver Foyle
Philosopher
This is definitely true. But, because I am from out the country myself and drive a lot of back roads, I don't mind this problem (it is definitely a problem).
jeremyp
Philosopher
So ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊ what? You are one person who lives in the sticks. Most people live and/or work in urban spaces. Are we supposed to base our transport policies based on what you personally want?
As I have said before: nobody is going to ask you to give up cars when they are necessary.
Rolfe
Adult human female
On the contrary, it seems many people want to base transport policy entirely on what is appropriate for city dwellers.
jeremyp
Philosopher
I want to base transport policy in cities on what is appropriate for city dwellers and country people just visiting. I have not seen anybody argue for the complete abandonment of cars. It's a straw man.
Rolfe
Adult human female
I've seen plenty of that.
It gets everywhere. I even remember taking three friends (so a full car) into Edinburgh for a music workshop, from a village that has at best one bus an hour, which takes ages because it zig-zags across the landscape to pick up and drop passengers at a number of villages and towns. Someone said, of course we really should be taking public transport. She was that brainwashed. Why? I asked. Er, pollution, she said. I pointed out that she was sitting in an electric car. Er, um. You might say congestion, but we had four people in a not-very-big car. But still some be-kind handmaiden thought we should have spent several hours on a bus, after walking a mile in the rain to get the thing. And a couple of hours hanging around because the timetable of course never fits in with the timings of events.
It gets everywhere. I even remember taking three friends (so a full car) into Edinburgh for a music workshop, from a village that has at best one bus an hour, which takes ages because it zig-zags across the landscape to pick up and drop passengers at a number of villages and towns. Someone said, of course we really should be taking public transport. She was that brainwashed. Why? I asked. Er, pollution, she said. I pointed out that she was sitting in an electric car. Er, um. You might say congestion, but we had four people in a not-very-big car. But still some be-kind handmaiden thought we should have spent several hours on a bus, after walking a mile in the rain to get the thing. And a couple of hours hanging around because the timetable of course never fits in with the timings of events.
Last edited:
Rolfe
Adult human female
This is worth a look, for people hung up on lane markings.
Who is hung up on lane markings?
Rolfe
Adult human female
People above seemed to think that clear lane markings were necessary for self-driving cars.
No they didn't.