critical navigation

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Mon 29 Sep 2014 13:20
critical navigation - HandCart

Last night on the A1, a car overtook me at a slow differential speed, so I am confident about what I saw, because I had plenty of time to observe while I wound my jaw back up from my lap..

They'd stuck a large satnav display on the windscreen. It was at least a 7" screen, possibly bigger. It may have been a tablet PC.

This thing was in landscape orientation,

and was placed pretty-much centrally, below the rear-view mirror,

and was not in 'night mode'.

Let me run that past you again:

They'd got a great big rectangle of plastic stuck right in the middle of the windscreen of a Vauxhall Corsa (ie not, say, a lorry, so a significant portion of the windscreen was totally obscured).

This was at 11:10 pm on an unlit road, yet the thing was blaring out a full screen's-worth of white backlight into the driver's eyes (apart from a solitary vertical orange line depicting the A1).

How on earth is this not a ruddy great hazard?

And more's the point, in any case - how much satnav does anyone NEED on the A1 in Nottinghamshire?!?!

There was even a front-seat passenger who potentially could have read directions from a map...

...but presumably that must have been ruled-out because they were as totally clueless about concepts as fundamental as 'North' and 'South' as the driver must be.

Unbelievable.

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Mon 29 Sep 2014 13:40
critical navigation - catsdad
Reminds me of someone I worked with many years ago who used to switch the interior lights on in his van when on motorways at night. This was because his wife was a tad deaf and she couldn't hear over the road noise so tried to lip read and needed the lights on. He wouldn't acknowledge that the severely compromised visibility out into the darkness was any problem.
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Mon 29 Sep 2014 13:53
critical navigation - Bromptonaut

And if they were stopped they'd probably whinge endlessly about why coppers were not out catching rapists.

If you've got satnav though there's some benefit in keeping it running even on a long straight m/way rather than trying to reprogramme it approaching your junction or to get additional guidance in case of jams.

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Mon 29 Sep 2014 13:59
critical navigation - gordonbennet

Are you sure it was sat nav and they weren't watching a film.

Had a number of foreign lorries overtake me at night and the tell tale glow, confirmed by looking in, shows the driver, alone, watching a film.

To be fair i haven't seen one for about 2 years doing this, maybe the old bill got wise and started to nick 'em.

I don't like anything being in the windscreen view, i mount things like this on a portable base and keep it just out of sight line.

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Mon 29 Sep 2014 14:35
critical navigation - Bromptonaut

I don't like anything being in the windscreen view, i mount things like this on a portable base and keep it just out of sight line.

Same here. Having been a sanav refusenik for many years I've recently used Be On Road app on my Huddle tablet. So far only tried it as a handheld device as passenger navigator.

Might be tempted by it on a smart phone when solo but I'd want to attach it to the 'quarter lights' in the Berlingo where it has minimal effect on vision.

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Mon 29 Sep 2014 16:33
critical navigation - alan1302

And more's the point, in any case - how much satnav does anyone NEED on the A1 in Nottinghamshire?!?!

Depends where they are going. For all you know they came on the A1 at one junction and were getting off the next.

I've used a Sat Nav plenty of times even when I do know where I am going as it gives traffic updates and I have missed plenty of jams as I have been alerted to them before getting to them and can divert round - using the Sat Nav to guide me.

I agree that a large unit like that on full brighness at night time is not a good idea - but using a Sat Nav to help naviagte in my opinion is an excellent idea.

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Mon 29 Sep 2014 17:38
critical navigation - jc2

I've seen Satnavs fitted halfway up the screen directly in front of the driver!

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Tue 30 Sep 2014 10:55
critical navigation - Sofa Spud

I can beat the satnav story, although I've probably posted this one before....

Some years ago, on the southern part of the M25, an old Lada drew alongside and maintained the same speed as me, probably 50-60 mph. The driver was slouched across onto the passenger seat somehow (I don't remember the car being left-hand drive, but it could have been) and as he passed me, he tried to sell me a copy of 'Loot' magazine through the window! For some distance he was beside me, looking directly at me, holding up a bundle of magazines and not watching the road ahead at all.

Edited by Sofa Spud on 30/09/2014 at 10:59

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