Cars

[RaceBoarder]

Re: Cars

People shouldn't entirely rely on GPS. On occasion, GPS gets things wrong, or there's a detour or something. I've heard of people who rely entirely on GPS getting way off course for their destination. Having a good map or three on hand makes a lot of sense.

Had a friend who gave herself a panic attack while she was driving from Chicago to Orlando, FL... The was using her phone for a GPS but dropped it and managed to kill her phone while getting gas in TN... She knew she was on I-40 when it happened but had no idea where she was or what the rest of her route was... She started freaking out when her parents pulled it up from their house and proceeded to tell her the directions over the phone (she also had to use a payphone to make said call and that didn't help the freak out situation)... The idea of using mile markers to tell where you are or not having a voice say "Exit XX is 1 mile ahead on the right" was completely foreign for her... I felt bad that she had a legit panic attack over this, but at the same time, it was one of the hardest facepalms I have ever had to personally endure...

People are amazed that I don't use a GPS, yet can drive anywhere using an atlas that I got for signing up for State Farm Insurance back in 2001...

 

[Twitch Boy]

Re: Cars

People shouldn't entirely rely on GPS. On occasion, GPS gets things wrong, or there's a detour or something. I've heard of people who rely entirely on GPS getting way off course for their destination. Having a good map or three on hand makes a lot of sense.

I use GPS/Google Maps before I leave to get an idea of where I'm going, then I print out or write down the directions/major turns. One less thing to pay attention to - for one of those dadgummed spoiled entitled Millennials, I'm alarmingly one-track minded.

 

[UncleRay]

Re: Cars

Buy a map.

Neanderthal.

 

[The Rube]

Re: Cars

Neanderthal.

True story:

A couple years ago, a couple of us were travelling to Traverse City from Minneapolis. We hit some construction in BFE, WI and looked for a detour on a smart phone. Detour would take us a few miles out of our way, including some backtracking. I consulted a map, found a much shorter way (less than a mile out of our way). Yes, I gloated.

 

[state of hockey]

Re: Cars

I never use my phone for a route. I merely look up the address of my destination. If I am unfamiliar with the area I'll study the map I suppose, but I never let it tell me where to go.

 

[The Rube]

Re: Cars

I never use my phone for a route. I merely look up the address of my destination. If I am unfamiliar with the area I'll study the map I suppose, but I never let it tell me where to go.

I'll look it up on Yahoo Maps (or similar) and write it down. It's only failed me once, and that was my fault, as I didn't specify the address I was coming from (I only entered the city), and they assumed I was on the other side of the main road I was coming from.

 

[SteveP]

Re: Cars

Neanderthal.

Even AAA Triptiks have gone digital

 

[SteveP]

Re: Cars

People shouldn't entirely rely on GPS.

I hate the condescending English woman constantly saying "Recalculating"

 

[The Rube]

Re: Cars

I hate the condescending English woman constantly saying "Recalculating"

. (must spread rep)

 

[bigmrg74]

Re: Cars

I hate the condescending English woman constantly saying "Recalculating"

She is so **** smug!

And you should really watch that Recalculating when you're out in the boonies somewhere. A couple of years ago, a couple of ladies got lost out in Death Valley because their GPS kept changing routes on them, which lead to them driving around in circles and running out of gas with no supplies to be staying out in the middle of Death Valley with. They where lucky to be found by a helicopter from the CHP.

 

[The Rube]

Re: Cars

She is so **** smug!

And you should really watch that Recalculating when you're out in the boonies somewhere. A couple of years ago, a couple of ladies got lost out in Death Valley because their GPS kept changing routes on them, which lead to them driving around in circles and running out of gas with no supplies to be staying out in the middle of Death Valley with. They where lucky to be found by a helicopter from the CHP.

Rand McNally would've saved them.

 

[brookyone]

Re: Cars

Pretty cool little roadster and a nice build.

http://www.rkmotorscharlotte.com/sales/inventory/active#!/1967-Sunbeam-Tiger/134380/X7mVlcqmCjU

 

[SteveP]

Re: Cars

Pretty cool little roadster and a nice build.

http://www.rkmotorscharlotte.com/sales/inventory/active#!/1967-Sunbeam-Tiger/134380/X7mVlcqmCjU

Tiger > Cobra IMHO. Maxwell Smart would agree.

I briefly owned and tried to restore a racing Sunbeam Alpine back in my misspent youth, but had to sell it when I lost the garage space. I ran a Bugeye Sprite for two summers. Fun little buggy!

How about a million dollar car-B-Q
http://www.torontosun.com/2014/09/29/dragons-den-stars-porsche-goes-up-in-flames-at-gas-station

A rare, $1-million super car suddenly became too hot for a Dragon to handle, after it caught fire at a Caledon gas station on Sunday.

Michael Wekerle, one of the judges on the CBC show Dragons' Den, saw his brand new Porsche 918 Spyder go up in flames at an Esso gas station, according to a CBC statement.

 

[joecct]

Re: Cars

Hmmmm

@WTOP: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles announces it will spin off sports car maker Ferrari http://bit.ly/ZZVSnM http://twitter.com/WTOP/status/527498886462439425/photo/1

 

[jmh]

Re: Cars

People shouldn't entirely rely on GPS. On occasion, GPS gets things wrong, or there's a detour or something. I've heard of people who rely entirely on GPS getting way off course for their destination. Having a good map or three on hand makes a lot of sense.

I use GPS/Google Maps before I leave to get an idea of where I'm going, then I print out or write down the directions/major turns. One less thing to pay attention to - for one of those dadgummed spoiled entitled Millennials, I'm alarmingly one-track minded.

The thing about GPS, for me, is that people (read: my mother-in-law, so this isn't about entitled Millennials) who rely exclusively on them to navigate tend to sort of disengage their brains from the task of driving and wait to be told what to do. This strikes me as bad for navigation purposes (you're not looking at what's around you, you don't have a sense of how far it is until you have to take a turn/exit/etc., signs about detours don't register for you) and safety purposes (anything that makes you mentally detached from your surroundings decreases your reaction time, to say nothing of the need to look away from the road and at a screen instead). I'd much rather have a route in my head beforehand (road names/numbers, exit numbers) and if I get confused I can always pull over and consult my phone.

More than that, I can't understand people who won't follow directions they've been given by another person and need to use the GPS instead. A local will always know better than Google Maps the best way to get somewhere in their area; an event venue will always know the simplest route from a highway. Trust people.

(I'm a map nerd, in addition to various other forms of nerdery, and I love a road atlas, but I'm not typically confident that a printed source will be current. Good to have as a backup though.)

 

[jmh]

Re: Cars

Double post since it's completely unrelated to my previous one: anyone have any firsthand experience with the Camry Hybrid, particularly the generation from 2012-current? I have no reservations about the Camry in general, asking about the Hybrid specifically.

 

[The Sicatoka]

Re: Cars

People are amazed that I don't use a GPS, yet can drive anywhere using an atlas that I got for signing up for State Farm Insurance back in 2001...

I gave someone who is "GPS dependent" directions to my place one time when they didn't have their GPS crutch with them. I said, "Take Exit < number > off I-< number > and go west <number> miles. There's a stop sign there. From there go north < number > miles ... " at which point the person asked me, "What do you mean 'west' and 'north' and how will I know how many miles I've gone?".

< facepalm >

 

[Patman]

Re: Cars

I gave someone who is "GPS dependent" directions to my place one time when they didn't have their GPS crutch with them. I said, "Take Exit < number > off I-< number > and go west <number> miles. There's a stop sign there. From there go north < number > miles ... " at which point the person asked me, "What do you mean 'west' and 'north' and how will I know how many miles I've gone?".

< facepalm >

you know, since I've had the GPS I haven't had to deal with this... but my odometer doesn't report in tenths... just whole numbers. Now, the trip odometer does... but it seems to me if one can report with a decimal why not the other? Probably not enough display space.

 

[St. Clown]

Re: Cars

you know, since I've had the GPS I haven't had to deal with this... but my odometer doesn't report in tenths... just whole numbers. Now, the trip odometer does... but it seems to me if one can report with a decimal why not the other? Probably not enough display space.

It is largely about the display space. They made the odometers with only six wheels back in the day because it had to fit within the controls cluster. They didn't have a lot of space within those clusters, not for a very long time. Also, nobody expected people to drive 1,000,000 miles in a car, but 100,000 was almost commonplace. And really, what good does know the tenths-of-a-mile do you when you're talking about the life of a car in total? The trip-ometer had to have the decimal as you're looking at smaller numbers, doing more math with them, and gauging the tenths of a mile to know when to turn. It's all highly logical as to how these different readouts developed, if you pay attention to the history of the technology.

 

[Patman]

Re: Cars

It is largely about the display space. They made the odometers with only six wheels back in the day because it had to fit within the controls cluster. They didn't have a lot of space within those clusters, not for a very long time. Also, nobody expected people to drive 1,000,000 miles in a car, but 100,000 was almost commonplace. And really, what good does know the tenths-of-a-mile do you when you're talking about the life of a car in total? The trip-ometer had to have the decimal as you're looking at smaller numbers, doing more math with them, and gauging the tenths of a mile to know when to turn. It's all highly logical as to how these different readouts developed, if you pay attention to the history of the technology.

The more computer screen like my dash becomes the more I question the need to remove a decimal

edit: and I don't bother with the trip thingy... because, really, who does?