Driving Directions

CNN Travel on Trusting Your GPS
CNN Travel’s Jeffrey Weiss: Why your trusty GPS sometimes fails you. “GPS navigation systems aren’t perfect. Most of them are pretty good, but blind acceptance of their advice can become a traveler’s nightmare. … The bottom line: GPS is an…
More Men than Women Ignore GPS Directions, But Lots Do in Either Case
A survey has found that men are more likely than women to ignore the directions given by their GPS navigation system, Reuters reports: 83 percent of men versus “less than three quarters” of women. (How much less?) Gender issues aside…
GPS Tracklog Reviews the Magellan RoadMate 9055
Briefly noted: GPS Tracklog’s review of the Magellan RoadMate 9055, with a monster seven-inch screen, which Rich calls “perhaps the best Magellan I’ve ever tested.” Buy Magellan RoadMate 9055 at Amazon.com (Canada)…
What People Search for on Their GPS Receivers
Mashable has infographics from TeleNav showing what people search for on their GPS receivers, based on anonymous data from 20 million subscribers….
GPS Tracklog Reviews the Garmin nüvi 2460LT
GPS Tracklog’s hands-on review of the five-inch Garmin nüvi 2460LT only finds fault with the “wonky routing” occasionally thrown by the navigation unit’s use of its historical road speed database. “With that caveat, the nüvi 24xx models may actually…
Driver Stranded Three Days in Snow After Obeying GPS
A driver got stuck in the snow for three days because she followed her GPS navigation unit’s directions, which sent her along unpaved logging roads in New Brunswick that were impassable due to snow. New Brunswick is one of those…
Death by GPS
Via many sources, this harrowing Sacromento Bee article about the dangers of relying on GPS navigation in Death Valley. It’s already cost some tourists — already woefully unprepared for the conditions — their lives. Increasingly, park rangers say tourists are…
Macworld on iPhone GPS Apps
Macworld takes a look at 11 iPhone GPS apps, following up on a similar article from a year ago (that I somehow seem to have missed). Compared with last year, Glenn Fleishman writes, Most apps have gone through substantial revisions…
TomTom on Smartphones and Standalone GPS Devices, Redux
The last time we heard from Tom Murray, TomTom’s senior vice president of market development, he said that GPS-enabled smartphones had “no market impact” on the sales of standalone GPS navigation devices. It’s been six months. In a chat with…
Gassée on Turn-by-Turn Directions
Computer industry veteran Jean-Louis Gassée has some thoughts on the future of in-car navigation, based on his experiences on a road trip from Paris to Bilbao, in which the differences between a Pioneer navigation unit, a TomTom iPhone app, and…
‘The End of Maps’
“Is [this] where we’ve ended up, with a younger generation that can’t go three blocks without being told by a electronic voice where to turn?” asks Jeff Stricker in Saturday’s Star Tribune. Another one of those GPS-vs.-paper-maps pieces we see…
The Future of Standalone GPS Devices in Cars
This New York Times article examines whether GPS receivers for cars will get pinched between in-dash navigation systems on the one hand and smartphones with navigation apps on the other. Via @gpstracklog. Previously: TomTom Not Worried by GPS-Equipped Smartphones….
Ontario Woman Follows GPS into Marsh
Reports of GPS-induced driving mishaps continue to take a darker turn. The Globe and Mail: “An Ontario woman had to be rescued from the roof of her flooded car after a GPS system steered her astray into an isolated marsh.”…
Man Drowns After Following GPS Directions into Reservoir
Stories about people getting into trouble because their GPS navigation system led them astray are amusing — at least until someone dies. That’s what happened in Spain on Saturday night after a man drove his car into a reservoir, where…
A Roundup of iPhone and iPad Map Apps
The Guardian’s Bike Blog reviews CycleStreets, a free iPhone app; it’s essentially turn-by-turn navigation for cyclists. UK-only, using OpenStreetMap data. Via Steve Chilton. Avenza has announced PDF Maps, a geospatial PDF reader (i.e., PDFs with embedded spatial data). Universal app…
Stuck by Satnav, Rescued by Helicopter
This has to be one of the most spectacular examples of a driver getting stuck by following the directions of his GPS receiver: a van driver trapped on a “glorified goat track” in a mountainous part of Switzerland had to…
Navteq Unveils Landmark-Based Navigation
At the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin today, Navteq announced a new form of voice navigation called Natural Guidance: NAVTEQ Natural Guidance leapfrogs today’s linear navigation instructions — e.g. “turn right in 50 meters on Kurfürstendamm” — by guiding…
xkcd: I Don’t Want Directions
xkcd again. Oddly enough, I was like this before GPS: give me your address, I’ll find it on a map and figure out how to get there. People navigate differently; those who don’t navigate like this don’t get those…
Two-Thirds of Britons Admit to Getting Lost: Ordnance Survey
The Ordnance Survey Blog on the results of their survey on driving and navigation: “Our results show that two thirds of the population admit to regularly getting lost, a figure that soars to nearly eight out of ten in London,…
‘A Wrong Turn You Have Made … to the Dark Side’
First Darth Vader, now Yoda….
Twenty-Five GPS Devices, One Windshield
Crossroads, a short video by Garvin Nolte, is a piece of installation art in which a driver drives around with 25, count ’em, 25 GPS navigation devices giving voice directions — a comment, says Nolte, on “the influence of…
You Can’t Use Your Cellphone’s GPS to Navigate Your Car in Massachusetts
A new Massachusetts law signed by Gov. Patrick on Saturday bans using a cellphone for navigation; standalone GPS receivers are still okay. In other words, using a TomTom device is okay, but using TomTom’s iPhone app while in the car…
Google Maps Navigation for Android Comes to Canada and Continental Europe
After the U.S., the U.K., and Ireland, Google Maps Navigation — providing free turn-by-turn navigation on Android phones — has arrived in Canada and 10 continental European countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland)….
TomTom Not Worried by GPS-Equipped Smartphones
TomTom’s senior vice president of market development, Tom Murray, doesn’t think GPS-equipped smartphones will replace dedicated navigation devices any time soon. “There’s been no market impact on the demand for stand-alone GPS devices,” TomTom Tom says in an interview; he…
Woman Sues Google for Walking Directions After Being Hit by a Car
It’s one thing to read stories about people who blithely follow their navigation systems and end up driving into a river or off a cliff; the driver feels stupid, the rest of us have a good laugh and mutter something…
Darth Vader Tells You Where to Go
It’s Star Wars Day (May the Fourth be with you), and TomTom is announcing Star Wars voices for its navigation devices (press release). Darth Vader is available now, with others to come later — but who cares about them? This…
Using iPhone Navigation Apps on the iPad
GPS Review takes a very quick look at how navigation apps for the iPhone work on the 3G-equipped variant of the iPad, which also includes a GPS chip. None of the apps have been customized for the iPad, so they…
PCMag on Mobile Phone Navigation Apps
PCMag has a roundup of navigation apps for GPS-equipped mobile phones, reviewing seven examples of the genre. They include iPhone apps as well as Nokia, Android and Verizon phones. Via All Points Blog….
Will Google Bring Turn-by-Turn Navigation to the iPhone?
Several Apple-oriented sites I follow have reported that Google, fresh off its launch of Google Maps Navigation in the U.K. and Ireland, may be about to release turn-by-turn navigation for the iPhone. That was based on the following line in…
Google Maps Navigation Comes to the U.K. and Ireland
Previously U.S.-only, Google Maps Navigation is now available in the U.K. and Ireland on Android phones. Jemima Kiss of the Grauniad’s PDA blog runs it through its paces. This being satellite navigation in Britain, hilarity is predestined to ensue. Here’s…
Google Maps Adds Driving Directions in 111 Countries
Google Maps announces driving directions for 111 new countries, largely in Africa, central Asia, Central and South America, and island countries around the world (from Aruba to Vanuatu)….
Recently Observed GPS Quirks
I drove to Toronto and back over the weekend. I knew the way, but I used my Garmin nüvi 255W (see previous entry) to navigate. Of course, there were some quirks. I have the following observations about what it…
‘The Simpsons’ Does GPS
In last Sunday’s episode of The Simpsons, Homer got a GPS. I think you can figure out how that went. Via GPS Tracklog….
Engadget Compares Smartphone Navigation
Engadget does a head-to-head comparison of three GPS smartphone navigation systems: Google Navigation, Ovi Maps, and VZ Navigator. So which is the nav for you? There’s zero platform overlap here, so if you already have a smartphone in your pocket…
GPS Gets Couple Lost, Rescues Them
Another one of these stories: following their SUV’s navigation system, a couple got stuck in the snow on a remote forest road in eastern Oregon for three days (fortunately, they had warm clothes), until the atmospherics cleared up enough for…
‘A Significant Step Down in Quality’
Peter Batty weighs in on the quality of Google’s new, homegrown map data: As anyone in the geo world knows, all maps have errors, and it’s hard to do a really rigorous analysis on Google’s current dataset versus others. But…
Too Soon?
Steven Citron-Pousty wonders whether Google dropped Tele Atlas before their own data was ready. “Google’s routing data sucks right now and there are no two ways about it.” Via Peter. Previously: Google Stops Using Tele Atlas in the U.S….
Reactions to Google Maps Navigation
Much of the reaction to Google Maps Navigation for Android devices (previously) focuses on its impact on the GPS industry. The Washington Post’s Rob Pegoraro sees the Google Maps Navigation announcement in the context of whether Google is becoming the…
Google Maps Navigation: Free Turn-by-Turn Directions for Android Phones
Google announced Google Maps Navigation for Android 2.0 today — turn-by-turn navigation for Google Maps running on Android smartphones, using the phones’ Internet connection to fetch up-to-date map, direction and traffic data. Also satellite imagery and Street View. Also, it’s…
Trusting Your GPS Is Not a Legal Defence
Doing exactly what your car’s GPS tells you to is not only not an excuse, it’s also not a legal defence. A 43-year-old British man who followed his GPS’s directions to the edge of a cliff earlier this year has…
Navteq Claims Real-Time Traffic Data Saves Time, Reduces Emissions
A study sponsored by Navteq argues that having a GPS navigation system with real-time traffic data lets drivers spend less time behind the wheel — between two and a half to four days a year, depending on the country —…
TomTom for iPhone Pricing
Remember how I mentioned that iPhone navigation applications were expensive? Apparently, TomTom for iPhone will run close to $200 — but that’s including the hardware (a cradle to charge the iPhone and improve GPS reception) as well as the software….
Note: GPS Units Don’t Correct Typos
Note to GPS users: if you make a typo putting in your destination — say, typing in “Carpi” when you mean “Capri” — you’re on your own. Just ask the Swedish tourists who went 650 km in the wrong direction…
The Passing of the Navigator
The National Post’s Peter Kenter bemoans the passing of the skilled road navigator, from an era when “a driver or a passenger who was particularly skilled at reading maps was an important asset on any road trip. Born with an…
GPS Review on Navigon MobileNavigator for iPhone
Hot on the heels of their review of AT&T Navigator for iPhone (see previous entry), GPS Review has a review of the North American version of Navigon MobileNavigator for iPhone. The notable difference between the two: Navigon’s app stores maps…
GPS Review on AT&T Navigator for iPhone
GPS Review has a huge, in-depth review of AT&T Navigator for iPhone, which costs $10/month and downloads its maps over a network connection. The latter point has some positive and negative implications: [T]his means that the application relies on network…
Emily Yoffe on Her GPS: ‘A Cross Between Lady Macbeth and HAL 9000’
Everyone is pointing to the last paragraph of Emily Yoffe’s piece in The Washington Post about the perils of using a GPS, but there’s plenty of cringeworthy detail before that about the impact of being led astray by your dashboard…
Expensive iPhone Navigation Apps: Navigon’s MobileNavigator
BusinessWeek’s Stephen Wildstrom explains why iPhone navigation applications are so expensive: [Y]ou need a source of maps and a data base of directions, driving instructions, and points of interest. There are two main sources of maps, Navteq (owned by Nokia)…
More iPhone Turn-by-Turn Navigation Software Coming
TomTom isn’t the only company with forthcoming turn-by-turn navigation software for the iPhone (see previous entry); AppleInsider reports that both Navigon and TeleNav have iPhone applications in development. Via All Points Blog….
Some iPhone News
There was, you may have heard, some news about a new iPhone yesterday; over on O’Reilly Radar, Brady Forrest sums up the geotechnology implications of the new iPhone 3GS and iPhone OS 3.0, including the ability of the web browser…
How to Read a Map, for Sat Nav Users
Apropos of the whole OMG-GPS-is-going-to-fail thing, the Grauniad’s Tim Dowling has some advice for drivers who might suddenly have to do without their in-car navigation systems, in the form of a FAQ for paper maps. Some examples: I need to…
April Foolery
Apart from some rather obscure industry in-jokes and an atrocious pun, the focus of this year’s geospatial-industry silliness seems to be Google Street View and its impact on privacy. Google Earth Blog announces that the next-generation Street View will include…
Another British Case of Blindly Following Your GPS
The latest instance of sat-nav Schadenfreude — the media having fun at the expense of some poor fool who followed his dashboard GPS’s directions to the letter and ended up in trouble — involves a 43-year-old British man (of course)…
Getting Lost with a GPS
Charles Cooper on his experience getting lost with an in-car GPS: “Garmin sells a simple and reliable device. Unfortunately, it doesn’t relieve you of the responsibility for using your brain. A certain somebody (no names, here) had programmed the device…
AA Survey Reveals How Britons Use GPS on the Road
A survey of its members by the British Automobile Association (AA) revealed some interesting attitudes towards car-based GPS navigation devices (which in the U.K. are referred to as “satnav”). Some highlights: 61 percent agreed that their GPS had prevented them…
xkcd on Driving Directions
Earlier (yes, I know I’m late), Web comic xkcd had some fun with driving directions — the printed-out-from-Google-Maps sort. Via Very Spatial and Google Maps Mania. Still earlier (would it kill Randall to use datestamps?), how about this take…
GPS and Car Rallies
A couple of thoughts on the Rental Car Rally, which ran earlier this month between New York and Montreal. First, here’s CNet’s Caroline McCarthy’s take on the event: The surprising truth? A large number of the driving squads had nothing…
Google, Yahoo Maps Refreshed
Both Google Maps and Yahoo Maps got refreshed last week: Google’s interface was rejigged to reduce clutter (oddly, I get the old interface when I load maps.google.com, but the new interface when I load maps.google.ca — localization bug?); Yahoo’s interface…
Following Signs, Asking for Directions Beats Maps, GPS
Reader’s Digest organized a race from one end of Britain to the other, with each of three teams using a different means of navigation. The Scotsman reports on the results: “The race was won by a team relying on road…
A Roundup of Interesting Map Links
A few quick map and map-related gems to share with you: Claire showcases another collection of map tattoos. Indiana Jones and the Fonts on the Maps: Mark Simonson notes that the maps used in the Indiana Jones movies are anachronistic….
GPS Isn’t Making Us Dumb
The problem with the ABC News article entitled “Will GPS Make Us Dumb?” is that it makes a false juxtaposition: map-reading skills with navigation devices’ turn-by-turn directions: “One effect of an increased dependence on GPS will be that peoples’ ability…
Longest Drives in Google Maps
Alan Taylor: “I set out to find the longest distance for which Google Maps would give Driving Directions. Now that they’ve shut down the fun ‘swim the Atlantic’ feature, things have changed a bit. It turns out there are multiple…
The Office
GPS Review has a clip from an episode of (the U.S. version of) The Office that satirizes the news stories about GPS-navigation-related accidents….
Pittsburgh GPS Review
“GPS units are like friends with personality quirks that sometimes can be hard to figure,” writes Bob Karlovits in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “They know all the answers. They are insistent on telling you them. They never admit to being wrong.”…
‘When GPS Turns Bad’
Computerworld’s David Ramel sums up the rash of stories about drivers getting into trouble by (blindly) following directions from their GPS navigation device. “These things actually seem to happen fairly often,” he writes. “For some reason, most of them occur…
Navigation and Liability
Via Spatial Law, an interesting question about GPS navigation and legal liability: if somebody who follows faulty directions from a GPS navigation system gets into an accident, and is held liable for that accident (as has in fact occurred), can…
A News Roundup and a Programming Note
A few links to news stories to tide you over during the holidays: The Montreal Gazette on OpenStreetMap The Chicago Tribune on map collecting The Times rambles about the technology behind in-car navigation devices I’ll be off for about a…
Yahoo Adds Draggable Driving Directions
Yahoo follows Google’s lead, adding user-adjustable driving directions with a click-and-drag interface. Now that I’ve this feature for a while, I now consider it essential, especially when you have some sense of what the best route will be for at…
New York Times on GPS Navigation Accidents
Sure, stories about drivers getting into trouble because they blindly obey their GPS navigation stories are fun, but, as I mentioned in a previous entry, you can’t help but wonder about the bigger picture — i.e., why is this happening?…
Another GPS Navigation Incident: Some Questions
It’s more of the same: truck drivers sent down narrow streets in Llangadog, Wales, by their satellite-navigation systems are crashing into buildings. Via Engadget. This is happening too often to fall under the “random idiot” section of the news, however…
Truck Lodged in Lane for Three Days: Guess Why
I am required to report the following item from the Daily Mail: “A lorry driver who was led off course by his sat nav got his HGV [heavy goods vehicle] so tightly wedged in a narrow country lane he had…
Baffling Welsh No-GPS Sign
Sky News: “New signs are warning motorists to ignore their sat-navs on narrow Welsh lanes — but drivers may have a tricky time working out the symbols on the design.” You think? Four signs have been erected in a…
Audacia Ray on GPS Navigation Systems
Author, blogger and adult filmmaker Audacia Ray, writing about her road trip to LA, has this to say about in-dash GPS systems: I like not having maps crumpled up on the floor of my car, or misfolded in my bag…
More on GPS Driving Mistakes
Travel blog Gadling has a post warning against blind faith in the directions given by a GPS navigation system — a subject near and dear to my heart, as previous entries will attest. The latest example comes from Italy, where…
Google Maps: Draggable Driving Directions
The driving directions feature on Google Maps has just received a major upgrade. Multiple stops and traffic conditions have (apparently) been added, but the big one is that you can now change the route you’re given to your destination…
Why Do People Follow Bad Directions?
Nicholas Forbes writes with an interesting question about why people follow bad directions — covered here ad nauseaum — that is above my pay grade: I am a Ph.D. student at the University of Nottingham UK. I have been running…
Some Google Maps Updates
Google Transit adds Reno and San Diego; I must have missed when they added the Japanese rail networks, domestic airlines and ferries. Google Maps for mobile supports GPS on certain devices — for example, the BlackBerry 8800 and some Windows…
MacArthur Maze vs. U.S. Route 90
Some more material about updating road data after disasters that I missed the first time around (and am only getting to now). Via Mapping Hacks, a San Francisco Chronicle article that discussed updating driving directions in the wake of…
Case in Point: Driver Obeys Directions, Gets Car Hit by Train
And this is exactly the sort of thing I was on about before: trusting her GPS navigation system implicitly, a British woman drives onto the tracks; while closing the level crossing gate (first clue) behind her, her car is hit…
Apparently I’m a Pundit Now
Three weeks ago, I was contacted by a writer for iPass who was working on an article about the accuracy of driving directions on online mapping sites. I provided some pithy comments. Her article is now online and to my…
How Online Maps Update Their Data After Major Road Closures
This week has revealed a lot about how the online mapping sites respond to disasters that close major routes and affect driving directions. Within two days of the MacArthur Maze freeway collapse in Oakland, Google Maps, Yahoo Maps and MapQuest…
A GPS News Roundup: Car Navigation Security, Robust Surface Navigation, Solar Flares
Security experts — who, to be fair, have an interest in crying wolf — warn that hackers can use off-the-shelf equipment to send messages to car navigation systems using the FM channel for traffic and weather data. Remember: if your…
Trans-Atlantic Driving Directions
For a giggle, have a look at Google Maps’s driving directions from New York to Dublin, Ireland. Take special note of step 23. Lord help us if this makes its way into dashboard navigation systems. Via Kottke. Update: The MetaFilter…
Plunging into a River — That Makes Sense
Here we go again. Another story proving that an onboard GPS is a poor substitute for common sense, or at least some signs of neural activity. A woman drove her expensive Mercedes into a river in Leicestershire, and needed to…
‘Do Not Follow Sat Nav’
Fed up with large trucks getting stuck along a narrow laneway that their navigation systems sent them down, residents of the Hampshire village of Exton asked for, and received, signs warning drivers to disregard their GPS receivers, The Mail…
Toyota’s Customized Map Updates
Just how hard is it to update the maps on in-dash GPS navigation systems? The fact that Toyota’s announcement — that it has developed a way to simplify and speed up the process by only updating the maps relevant to…
Around and Around and Around and Around
Google gets a bit confused on the road to North Brunswick, New Jersey, Valleywag reports. Update, 1/23: Google has corrected the directions, but Chad has screenshots if you missed it….
Correcting Directions
Dave Winer discovers a better route than the directions suggested by Google Maps, and wonders: “So — when does mapping become a two-way app? I’d be willing to tell their software that I have a better route, it’s one that…
Roadnav
Roadnav is open-source navigation software meant to be run on an in-car computer connected to a GPS; it runs on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. “Roadnav can obtain a car’s present location from a GPS unit, plot street…
Were the Kims Led Astray by Online Maps?
On the other hand, sometimes stories about being led astray by navigation systems aren’t so amusing. The tech community has been concerned about the disappearance of CNet senior editor James Kim and his family while on vacation: his family was…
Ambulance Goes Slightly Astray
Another screwup thanks to blindly following a GPS navigation system instead of, well, thinking, this time by a British ambulance that went 200 miles off-course on what was supposed to be a routine, 20-minute transfer. The drivers, according to the…
Allan Doyle: ‘Georectifying My Mental Map’
Allan Doyle on the “life-changing” impact of a GPS: “I don’t know about you, but my mental map of greater Boston has been simplified to an abstraction that borders on the scary. Of course, I didn’t realize that until I…
Dvorak on GPS: ‘Buy a Friggin’ Map!’
Dvorak, being Dvorak, disses GPS devices: “I’ve had the various DeLorme and Microsoft systems and a number of nifty handheld devices. My conclusion: Buy a friggin’ map! Much of the appeal of the GPS is that the general public today…
Discriminav
“Discriminav” is a dark bit of humour from Talkshow with Spike Feresten: Via GPS Tracklog. This skit is teh funny, but what it describes is also totally possible: all you’d need to do is mash up census data with driving…
More German Driving Misadventures
As God as my witness, I thought Germans could drive. But we have two more stories of drivers following their GPS navigation systems to unusual ends: last Monday, a driver rammed a staircase in Rudolstadt, and on Thursday a…
Hang a Left at the Pile of Sand
Aged German driver obeys navigation system, ignores construction barricades, crashes into pile of sand. Via Engadget. See previous entries: Getting Stuck in a Narrow Welsh Laneway; Because My Car Said So; Crackpot Directions Send Drivers Along a Cliff….
NY Times: Navteq in New York
The New York Times adds to the pile of coverage about digital mapping data providers with this piece about Navteq’s field surveyors, tagging along as they survey a part of Queens. Since Navteq and TeleAtlas don’t sell directly to consumers,…
MapQuest: Multi-stop Route Builder
All Points Blog reports that MapQuest has released a beta of a new (for them) thing for their directions feature: multi-point route building (press release). See previous entry: More About MapQuest’s Future….
Getting Stuck in a Narrow Welsh Laneway
On We Make Money Not Art, Régine rounds up previous stories about drivers in the UK being led astray (into rivers, along cliffs) by their dashboard GPS navigation units. (Or rather, about drivers in the UK allowing themselves to be…
Major Google Maps European Update
First there was a massive update of Google Earth’s satellite and aerial photography, much of which affected (and improved) the imagery for Europe. Then that imagery was carried over to Google Maps, which again had an impact on European views….
Because My Car Said So
If you thought sending drivers along a 100-foot cliff was crazy enough, you won’t believe this entry from the annals of bad directions from wonky British in-car navigation systems. Except this time I’m not so sure if it’s the fault…
The New Yorker on Road Maps and Directions
This week’s New Yorker has a long article by Nick Paumgarten on mapping, the principal focus of which is driving directions, but which has lots of little digressions into cognate areas like road maps (and their history) and digital mapping…
Crackpot Directions Send Drivers Along a Cliff
BBC News: “Drivers following satellite navigation systems through a village called Crackpot have been directed along a track at the edge of a 100-ft cliff.” Another entry in the annals of errors made by in-car navigation systems. Via Slashgeo. See…