R
rowan194
Guest
I tried out a Destinator ND briefly. Apparently Destinator have the
best maps in general, but they need to work out some kinks...
- It invited me to do a U-turn on a freeway.
- Asked me to turn right in the Burnley tunnel (it's a straight line!
It probably got confused with the road above.)
- It gives instructions for intersections that are some distance ahead
(it once told me that I had to turn left at a roundabout that was 3km
ahead. It also yaps on at 500m and 200m which I think is more than
sufficient.)
- Battery life is so severely limited that it's almost useless. It
doesn't last more than 5 minutes out of the car. I thought it was a
faulty battery but others have reported this also.
- Complains I'm over the speed limit when I'm doing 80km/hr on a
freeway onramp.
- Told me to turn right into a road... that was blocked by a locked
gate and a nasty warning sign about trespassing on federal airport
property.
- Does some odd route calculations, in suburbia it tended to prefer
weaving around back streets rather than sticking to the main roads. The
former may have less DISTANCE than the latter, but because of all the
turns, roundabouts, lower speed limits etc it takes LONGER.
- Blinking red and blue lights on each side of the unit make my car
look like an unmarked police vehicle any time I need to turn (these can
be disabled
)
On the plus side, I did like that it was fairly flexible with route
recalculation. I could ignore an instruction and it would figure out a
new way that usually fitted in with what I wanted to do, rather than
trying to guide me back onto the route it had previously chosen. This
was handy as I tended to tune out when I was in my local area, I know
it better than a computer.
Anyway, my brief experience with this product is apparently typical of
the current generation of GPS navigators. They are not yet ready for
general "hands off" public consumption. If you can live with the quirks
and not rely 100% on it then you'll be right. Just make sure you have a
return path in case you're unhappy with it. Mine went back a few days
after I purchased it.
best maps in general, but they need to work out some kinks...
- It invited me to do a U-turn on a freeway.
- Asked me to turn right in the Burnley tunnel (it's a straight line!
It probably got confused with the road above.)
- It gives instructions for intersections that are some distance ahead
(it once told me that I had to turn left at a roundabout that was 3km
ahead. It also yaps on at 500m and 200m which I think is more than
sufficient.)
- Battery life is so severely limited that it's almost useless. It
doesn't last more than 5 minutes out of the car. I thought it was a
faulty battery but others have reported this also.
- Complains I'm over the speed limit when I'm doing 80km/hr on a
freeway onramp.
- Told me to turn right into a road... that was blocked by a locked
gate and a nasty warning sign about trespassing on federal airport
property.
- Does some odd route calculations, in suburbia it tended to prefer
weaving around back streets rather than sticking to the main roads. The
former may have less DISTANCE than the latter, but because of all the
turns, roundabouts, lower speed limits etc it takes LONGER.
- Blinking red and blue lights on each side of the unit make my car
look like an unmarked police vehicle any time I need to turn (these can
be disabled
)On the plus side, I did like that it was fairly flexible with route
recalculation. I could ignore an instruction and it would figure out a
new way that usually fitted in with what I wanted to do, rather than
trying to guide me back onto the route it had previously chosen. This
was handy as I tended to tune out when I was in my local area, I know
it better than a computer.
Anyway, my brief experience with this product is apparently typical of
the current generation of GPS navigators. They are not yet ready for
general "hands off" public consumption. If you can live with the quirks
and not rely 100% on it then you'll be right. Just make sure you have a
return path in case you're unhappy with it. Mine went back a few days
after I purchased it.