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Navigon: Please stop telling me to drive straight!

E

edmartin

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
74
0
I have been a GPS user for some time - so I know that this isn't unique to Navigon. But there's something I just have never understood - and it really annoys me - so I wanted to pose it on a forum.

When you are driving down an interstate highway, why do most GPS's insist on dedicating "turn points" every time the highway that you are on crosses another one? You could be driving from Portland, ME to Miami, FL on I-95 and every time I-95 crosses another interstate highway, the damned GPS will tell you to keep driving straight.

1) I want to know when I need to turn - not when I need to continue to go straight!

2) I want to know how far I have to go to the next turn, not to the next highway that I just happen to be crossing over. Don't make me do the math while driving or have to scroll down the screen to see highway after highway

3) It's totally inconsistent. Every other road that I cross over is not set up as a "turn point" - from rural roads to state highways. Why the special (read: annoying) treatment for an interstate when you cross it?

It's more common than not that GPS's insist on setting all of these "turn points" even though they are not turn points at all. I'd like to understand the logic behind it.... but even more, I'd like to stop it!
 
Well, while it is quite annoying at times, it does have its uses. I don't know where you live, but in LA, two freeways sometimes split and the lane that you are on leads to a different freeway if you just go straight.
 
Just because you were born with a great sense of direction doesn't mean everyone has one. The little old man who get nervous when he approaches an interchange probably appreciates the "[don't worry] go straight" prompt. If you are so directionally gifted that a GPS is an annoyance, turn it off!
 
My favorite one is, "Please keep right on I-695 W in point one miles, then continue on I-695 W to I-695 West."
 
I hate that I have to turn my GPS nav unit on. I mean, I'm in the car, right? Shouldn't it just be on? And how 'bout it not knowing where I have to go? When are they gonna fix this? :(
 
edmartin said:
I have been a GPS user for some time - so I know that this isn't unique to Navigon. But there's something I just have never understood - and it really annoys me - so I wanted to pose it on a forum.

When you are driving down an interstate highway, why do most GPS's insist on dedicating "turn points" every time the highway that you are on crosses another one? You could be driving from Portland, ME to Miami, FL on I-95 and every time I-95 crosses another interstate highway, the damned GPS will tell you to keep driving straight.

1) I want to know when I need to turn - not when I need to continue to go straight!

2) I want to know how far I have to go to the next turn, not to the next highway that I just happen to be crossing over. Don't make me do the math while driving or have to scroll down the screen to see highway after highway

3) It's totally inconsistent. Every other road that I cross over is not set up as a "turn point" - from rural roads to state highways. Why the special (read: annoying) treatment for an interstate when you cross it?

It's more common than not that GPS's insist on setting all of these "turn points" even though they are not turn points at all. I'd like to understand the logic behind it.... but even more, I'd like to stop it!
Click to expand...

I agree with all of your points.
 
While it has annoyed me at points in the past, I do think it's because there are lots of interchanges where "straight" isn't so obvious. I suspect if you live in an area where things are wide open and the interchanges are straight forward it wouldn't make much sense. However, those driving in unfamiliar areas with webs of looping and/or twisting interchanges probably appreciate this very much. I wonder if it would be as simple as having an option called "announce through interchanges" to turn on or off.
 
Well, at least she says "PLEASE" :)

I agree, it can get annoying. TTS is sweet in 1.2 though.

TomTom, you better get busy or you are going to be left in the dust.
 
I've driven on 90 mile drives and only heard the "go straight" a couple of times when turning onto long stretches.

It's really not that big of a deal, but I'm sure as they tighten the application up people have to find something to complain about.
 
eawmp1 said:
Just because you were born with a great sense of direction doesn't mean everyone has one. The little old man who get nervous when he approaches an interchange probably appreciates the "[don't worry] go straight" prompt. If you are so directionally gifted that a GPS is an annoyance, turn it off!
Click to expand...

It has nothing to do with being born with a great sense of direction. In fact, if you have a bad sense of direction you should be annoyed by this.

Just tell me where I need to turn. Don't confuse the process by telling me to keep going straight. That's silly! I don't care of I am crossing an interstate highway or a cow path - if I do not need to turn, then stay out of it. But if you start putting up message stating that you have a "turn event" coming up, then directionally gifted and directionally challenged people are going to have to deal with extraneous GPS "noise" every time they cross a exit that happens to be an interstate highway. It's totally inconsistent and extraneous.
 
edmartin said:
It has nothing to do with being born with a great sense of direction. In fact, if you have a bad sense of direction you should be annoyed by this.

Just tell me where I need to turn. Don't confuse the process by telling me to keep going straight. That's silly! I don't care of I am crossing an interstate highway or a cow path - if I do not need to turn, then stay out of it. But if you start putting up message stating that you have a "turn event" coming up, then directionally gifted and directionally challenged people are going to have to deal with extraneous GPS "noise" every time they cross a exit that happens to be an interstate highway. It's totally inconsistent and extraneous.
Click to expand...

Every GPS I have used does the same thing. My $500 Garmins (I have two different models that were high end at the time I bought them) will tell you to continue for 'x' miles, which is actually more annoying if such a thing bothers you.

Maybe you should start petitioning the companies to put an option in to turn this off if it's such a bother to you?

Or, start an online petition and find out how much support (or lack of) there really is for such a tiny annoyance.
 
you mention i-95 and miami and i'll tell ya... doesnt matter how many years i've been down here, i hate driving south through miami cause before gps you read your mapquest to go to new part of miami you never had to go through and come up on part of i95 that looks like it will split 5 different ways with heavy traffic and not sure... you are seriously out of the way if you choose wrong or not in the right lane and cannot move over in time and you could be in a part of town you dont want to be in very fast and takes forever to get bearings straight and back on right road. same for going through orlando at times... so annoying as it may be if it comes through when you need it, then it's worth it and you wont be posting... 'why didnt it tell me i needed to be in that lane and i missed the exit and the stupid thing failed me and i am gonna delete it.'

besides... you dont like it then just tap on the screen and it goes back to normal directions.
 
My Honda nav (built by alpine I think) just says "stay on 91 turnpike". Which I still think is dumb at times. It pops up a pic of the interchange and overlays an arrow. It doesn't calculate them into the directions though- ye Gadsden, that would drive me bonkers.
 
aluren said:
Well, while it is quite annoying at times, it does have its uses. I don't know where you live, but in LA, two freeways sometimes split and the lane that you are on leads to a different freeway if you just go straight.
Click to expand...
Yep.


I agree with the OP in that I find it highly annoying the vast majority of the time, but there are exchanges where it's very helpful, and I'm glad to have the info. Ya gotta take the bitter with the sweet. ;)
 
jmpage2 said:
Every GPS I have used does the same thing. My $500 Garmins (I have two different models that were high end at the time I bought them) will tell you to continue for 'x' miles, which is actually more annoying if such a thing bothers you.

Maybe you should start petitioning the companies to put an option in to turn this off if it's such a bother to you?

Or, start an online petition and find out how much support (or lack of) there really is for such a tiny annoyance.
Click to expand...

I think that's what I'm doing - raising the issue/question to the community.

And I do know it's a minor problem in the great big scope of things but that's what forums are all about - discussions about a wide range of things; not all forums are out to cure cancer.

For what it's worth, JM, having someone chime in trying to tell me that my concern is a "minor annoyance" is more annoying than the GPS telling me to drive straight. At least the GPS isn't making a conscious decision to write a post (or 2 in your case) about something that they seem to not care about. :cool:
 
edmartin said:
I think that's what I'm doing - raising the issue/question to the community.

And I do know it's a minor problem in the great big scope of things but that's what forums are all about - discussions about a wide range of things; not all forums are out to cure cancer.

For what it's worth, JM, having someone chime in trying to tell me that my concern is a "minor annoyance" is more annoying than the GPS telling me to drive straight. At least the GPS isn't making a conscious decision to write a post (or 2 in your case) about something that they seem to not care about. :cool:
Click to expand...

The reason that I, and others, have piped in with our opinions about this problem of yours is that there are bigger fish to fry before Navigon coders start worrying about every prompt in the system and whether it rubbed someone the wrong way.

We want Traffic and Route Avoidance programming in the Navigon software. That will make it pretty close to perfect.

Maybe at that time they can start collecting information on the pet peeves people have.
 
jmpage2 said:
The reason that I, and others, have piped in with our opinions about this problem of yours is that there are bigger fish to fry before Navigon coders start worrying about every prompt in the system and whether it rubbed someone the wrong way.

We want Traffic and Route Avoidance programming in the Navigon software. That will make it pretty close to perfect.

Maybe at that time they can start collecting information on the pet peeves people have.
Click to expand...

2 comments...

1) One man's "problem" is another man's "bigger fish". But regardless, I'm not trying to suggest development priority - just spur a discussion.

2) In the first 20 words of my original post, I said that this is not unique to Navigon - it's common across all GPS's that I have used (stand alone and mobile).
 
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