Sat Nav v the taxi knowledge
 

"Paul Corfield" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 16 Dec 2007 12:54:25 +0000, Mike Hughes
wrote:

Test carried out by BBC using one of the latest Sat Navs
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programme...ne/7143897.stm

Seems that the taxi driver using the traditional knowledge can still
beat the Sat Nav.

stands back and waits for comments

Did you actually watch the programme though?

There were three legs

Box Hill - Wembley Stadium
Wembley Stadium - Parliament Square
Parliament Square - Greenwich.

The Sat Nav beat the taxi by about 10 minutes on the first leg as the
taxi driver got stuck down country lanes just like the Sat Nav system!
On the second leg the taxi only overtook the BBC car on what looked like
the Edgware Road and then ducked and dived down some back streets off
Park Lane to cut through to Parliament Square. What was more galling was
the taxi driver saying "well mate, make sure you avoid Piccadilly and
Piccadilly Circus and dive round by Buck Palace to get to Westminster".
The only issue being, of course, that his diversion off Park Lane took
him exactly in the direction of Piccadilly and not Buck Palace but heh!

On the second leg the taxi gained about 15 minutes or so. This lead
expanded to 27 minutes by Greenwich.

The point of the programme was really to show that the Sat Nav
"congestion avoiding" element of the software / system was not very
sophisticated. The big difference being that what counts as a jam for
London was showing as clear on the system.

But OTOH, a congestion avoiding SatNav is an "executive" product that
occupies the niche slot that once was occupied by bog standard SatNavs.
Once, few people owned sat navs and they were luxury produts. But now that
your average man in the street is buying them, he is still not going to be
buying a GPRS-linked congestion avoiding version.

tim

Sat Nav v the taxi knowledge
 

In article ,
(Lew 1) wrote:

My TomTom says that the *fastest* route from Euston Road to Essex
Road is Pentonville Rd - City Rd - Wakley St - Goswell Rd - Islington

High St - Upper St - Islington Gn. Crazy! If you ask for the shortest

route, it sends you through Baron St and White Lion St, which is
the correct shortest and fastest route.

In my view, SatNav doesn't exist to help me get to my destination
via the fastest route and I don't expect it.

However, most routes it comes up with would always be quicker then me
driving by myself, getting lost, missing turns, stopping and consulting
a map (or, saint's preserve us - asking a local) even if it is not the
fastest route that someone who knows the area would use.

If you know what the fastest and best route it, why would you need
to follow a Sat Nav anyway?

I've never used a SatNav myself but observed an AA Relay driver following
one to my home in Cambridge from London. It nearly missed him a vital
turn in Cambridge by not understanding the layout of a long established
double mini-roundabout junction in Cambridge. If I'd not been there with
local knowledge he'd have gone straight ahead instead of turning right
and got very lost.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

Sat Nav v the taxi knowledge
 

In article ,
(Mike Hughes) wrote:

OK then, take me from Manor House station to Gibson square.

LOL

(For those who don't know that is the very first 'route' in the
'blue book' issued by the Public Carriage Office to those intending
to become taxi drivers)

--
Mike Hughes
A Taxi driver licensed for London and Brighton
at home in Tarring, West Sussex, England

What is there in Gibson Square that taxi passengers would want to go to?

--
Colin Rosenstiel

Sat Nav v the taxi knowledge
 

"Colin Rosenstiel" wrote in message
...
In article ,
(Mike Hughes) wrote:

OK then, take me from Manor House station to Gibson square.

LOL

(For those who don't know that is the very first 'route' in the
'blue book' issued by the Public Carriage Office to those intending
to become taxi drivers)

--
Mike Hughes
A Taxi driver licensed for London and Brighton
at home in Tarring, West Sussex, England

What is there in Gibson Square that taxi passengers would want to go to?

--
Colin Rosenstiel
---------------------------------
My flat.

Sat Nav v the taxi knowledge
 

Colin Rosenstiel wrote:
In article ,
(Lew 1) wrote:

My TomTom says that the *fastest* route from Euston Road to Essex
Road is Pentonville Rd - City Rd - Wakley St - Goswell Rd -
Islington

High St - Upper St - Islington Gn. Crazy! If you ask for the
shortest

route, it sends you through Baron St and White Lion St, which is
the correct shortest and fastest route.

In my view, SatNav doesn't exist to help me get to my destination
via the fastest route and I don't expect it.

However, most routes it comes up with would always be quicker then me
driving by myself, getting lost, missing turns, stopping and
consulting a map (or, saint's preserve us - asking a local) even if
it is not the fastest route that someone who knows the area would
use.

If you know what the fastest and best route it, why would you need
to follow a Sat Nav anyway?

Some turnings are hard to find at speed. You might know that the road you
want is off Wightman Road
( http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=531250&y=188750 ) , for example,
but finding the right turning is a hell of a lot easier with a Satnav.

I've never used a SatNav myself but observed an AA Relay driver
following one to my home in Cambridge from London. It nearly missed
him a vital turn in Cambridge by not understanding the layout of a
long established double mini-roundabout junction in Cambridge. If I'd
not been there with local knowledge he'd have gone straight ahead
instead of turning right and got very lost.

My AA driver would have followed the Tomtom around an illegal right turn if
I hadn't told him not to. I wonder if people using them get fined more often
than people using maps?

Sat Nav v the taxi knowledge
 

Rob Wilton wrote:
"Colin Rosenstiel" wrote in message
...
In article ,
(Mike Hughes) wrote:

OK then, take me from Manor House station to Gibson square.

LOL

(For those who don't know that is the very first 'route' in the
'blue book' issued by the Public Carriage Office to those intending
to become taxi drivers)

What is there in Gibson Square that taxi passengers would want to go
to?

A Victoria Line fanshaft.

--------------------------------- My flat.

Have you ever got a taxi from Manor House to your flat? Did the driver
giggle?

Sat Nav v the taxi knowledge
 

In message ,
Colin Rosenstiel writes
In article ,
(Mike Hughes) wrote:

OK then, take me from Manor House station to Gibson square.

LOL

(For those who don't know that is the very first 'route' in the
'blue book' issued by the Public Carriage Office to those intending
to become taxi drivers)

--
Mike Hughes
A Taxi driver licensed for London and Brighton
at home in Tarring, West Sussex, England

What is there in Gibson Square that taxi passengers would want to go to?

Nothing that I know of. but because you can get to and leave it by using
Theberton Street and Barnsbury Street (via Milner Square) it starts to
build up a picture in your mind. There are however other 'points nearby
such as the Almeida Theatre, Waterloo Gardens (flats) and several of the
pubs and clubs in nearby Upper Street that an examiner could ask when a
student is up for an 'appearance' (test).

This is only the first route out of 320 that have to be learned as the
basic 'skeleton' which is then fleshed out with all the other roads and
points of interest within a 6 mile radius of Charing Cross - that covers
from Alexandra Palace in the north to Streatham Common in the sout and
from Chiswick to Stratford in the east - that is why the average time
taken is about 3 years.

--
Mike Hughes
A Taxi driver licensed for London and Brighton
at home in Tarring, West Sussex, England

Sat Nav v the taxi knowledge
 

"John Rowland" wrote in message
...
Rob Wilton wrote:
"Colin Rosenstiel" wrote in message
...
In article ,
(Mike Hughes) wrote:

OK then, take me from Manor House station to Gibson square.

LOL

(For those who don't know that is the very first 'route' in the
'blue book' issued by the Public Carriage Office to those intending
to become taxi drivers)

What is there in Gibson Square that taxi passengers would want to go
to?

A Victoria Line fanshaft.

--------------------------------- My flat.

Have you ever got a taxi from Manor House to your flat? Did the driver
giggle?

------------------------------------------------------------
Yes whenever I do this journey I get a smile off of the driver & I have had
it explained to me about the knowledge runs,I always try to use a licensed
black cab,the last minicab I took the Albanian driver spoke about three
words of English & could not use his Sat-Nav because he could not spell.

Sat Nav v the taxi knowledge
 

"Movilla" wrote in message

"Paul Corfield" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 16 Dec 2007 12:54:25 +0000, Mike Hughes
wrote:

I'm not a fan of Sat Nav systems - give me a real map any day of the
week - but it's surely not a great surprise that a human being with
the benefit of expert knowledge, experience and common sense can
outwit a partially developed computer system??

Naturally local knowledge will always beat a computer, but Sat Navs
come up trumps when you visit a place you've never been to before.

To my surprise, my satnav has occasionally also found better local
routes than I had.

But it sometimes also gets it wrong due to errors in its maps or its
ignorance of the fact that some minor roads are actually quicker than
parallel major roads. It also doesn't know about width restrictions --
my car only just squeezes through 6' 6" restrictions, so I try to avoid
them. However, I am able to program in areas to avoid, so it's getting
better.

Sat Nav v the taxi knowledge
 

My AA driver would have followed the Tomtom around an illegal right turn
if
I hadn't told him not to. I wonder if people using them get fined more
often
than people using maps?

Well, that is the drivers fault, rather than the Satnav. Following Satnav
shouldn't affect your reading of road signs and road layouts. I have only
had such a thing happen once, and afterwards I set that as an avoidance area
and it has never happened again.

Most good Satnavs, once you drive past the prohibited turning, will work out
another route anyway.

Best Wishes,
LEWIS