zoomzoomjr

Don't remind me... (I work in retail )

Gravel Gertie

Amen to this. You can't always trust a map. We were on the Interstate in Salt Lake City, Utah area. The map was distributed by the state dept. of transportation. We were looking for our motel so we checked the exit number on the map. We didn't know the exit numbers on the map were not correct due to a printing error. We ended up 12 miles away from our destination and had to call the motel for directions, then backtracked to the proper exit.

deconstructionist

Tell THAt to Garmin......

My wife's Garmin has failed us a half dozen times: 3 with me in the car (and her) and 3 more with just her. And yes, we have done the Map updates....

I dont recall the street just yet but we were litterally in the Middle of San Franciso and saw a street we wanted to get back to--- NO SUCH STREET existed according to Garmin Had to pull over and get out the OLLLLLDDDDDDD maps (as in I mean from 1975.......a box-o-maps from her Dad) and sure as spit its on a 20+ year old map but not on Garmin for a World-known city......

Tried to Goto a Denny's Lyon's in Davis.......... friggin thing led us on a litteral goosechase that ended in a field!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gimmie OLD tech "maps" ANY day and I feel safer

CIJeep

Heh, I thing that GPS was smarter than you, a Denny's? Hay from the field would be better.

Seriously if the GPS is kept current you can usually trust them. Garmin is probably better about that then most others.

I love adventure following their directions, see things I would not otherwise see.

TBJK

I would rely on maps as a backup.I normally look up anywhere I am going to be going to that I am not familar with.As far as trails and what not never hurts to pay attention to were you are going.I would say common sense would come along here. MY

w squared

+1 on that!

However...learn to use the compass and map effectively BEFORE you get lost and your GPS runs out of batteries. Your fabulous Suunto compass will not do much for you in the precision navigation department if the declination is set wrong...or if you don't know the difference between a contour line and a creek...or if you end up travelling for 5km in the wrong direction because you accidentally read a back bearing off the map...or...

You get the picture.

brent_f70

I love my Garmin Nuvi 760 but one time I put in the coordinates to a trail head and it started to take me through private property.....no trespassing signs, locked gates and all!!

TO its credit the detailed topo display did help us find an alternate route but some common sense had to be applied!!

doojer

I think its great that your GPS has yet to fail you, but I wouldn't assume that with the right maps it won't. I don't know what brand you use, but most of the big ones (Garmin, Magellan, TomTom, etc...) use Navteq maps for all their road data and NGS maps for all their topo data. These maps are not perfect, regardless of what version you have. There will be variations, roads that no longer exist, roads that are closed, private, impassable, etc... not to mention the fact that electronics do break or simply malfunction.


Believe me-- I love GPSrs and will always have/use one! But, you are absolutely right about using a paper map as a backup and that these people weren't ready for a trip like this. It's just another lesson that we hould all take with us. It's silly to just "follow the arrow" and trust it over your own sense.

SASQUATCH

Poor kids, especially the one running a fever, always carry a hardcopy map and plan out your trips. I love playing with the GPS but I don't trust all of it, sometimes it does retarded stuff, most times it's dead on, nothing like a real map though.

Now I'm curious Doojer, what do Verizon and AT&T use on their GPS phone systems? Same thing?

doojer

I'm not entirely sure, as I don't use them. But, I believe Verizon has a deal with MapQuest for their nav software, and Mapquest is Navteq.



I'm not saying Navteq is bad-- it's actually pretty accurate. I'm just pointing out that whatever you use, it's probably coming from the same source, and the data is nowhere near realtime so you can't just trust it blindly. Ya gotta use sense!