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#11
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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 |
#12
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Sat Nav v the taxi knowledge
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#13
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Sat Nav v the taxi knowledge
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#14
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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. |
#15
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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? |
#16
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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? |
#17
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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 |
#18
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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. |
#19
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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. |
#20
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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 |
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