GPS POI > GPS Forum > SatNav Discussion > Has a SAT-NAV ever got you lost before and how?

merlin2066

Having heard interesting stories about how people follow their sat navs blindly I'd be interested to know the strange places people have ended up. Anywhere dangerous?
Or just daft?

joncody1 · Posted: 11/11/2009 05:20am Post subject: Sat Nav lost in space

Hi
I had a Navman and the reason i sold it cause my family and i wanted to go to Jamberoo Action Park at the south coast as at that time we where just new in this country and header alot of good things about that park.
and could not afford to go anywhere far like Queensland.

So not knowing this country and just brought a new Navman I put in the address and we set of on our day out.
Five hrs later we ended up at foster in the other detection.

I then went back to the store i brought it from and i was not the only one it happened to there was two other people there complaining .the store recalled all the Navman F20 V2.0 back as the GPS software was faulty.

the good part of this story was i was given a refund and a new GPS and also we had a great time at foster. I just wished that the M7 would of been made back then. It would of cut of about two hours of our trip. We go back to Foster now every year and still to this day have not made it to Jamberoo Action Park....

We are thinking of doing the trip in summer
Wish us luck

BoulevardOnTour · Posted: 02/02/2010 01:28am Post subject: Life is an adventure

Hi Merlin
Well if you want to follow blindly you could end up anywhere!
Recently on a trip back from Inverell, I selected my Camp No and the pink line was to take me there... however
Late in the afternoon, thunderstorms all around me (yes I am soaked by this point) I still blindly follow the directions given to me by zumy (my zumo), the first 2kms no worries take it easy... then came the dirt... ok mud... not to bad slow down even more, then came the steep desent ***** i thought.
I want to go to this camp spot... so comes the end of the mud road I see a garbage bin thinking sweet i made it.
Only to find out I was on the wrong side of the river, I could see the camp site but not reach it.

After making it back to Uralla and looking at the paper map (which I should have read) I should have come in from the opposite direction.
Fun time had, I was wet and didn't care
Life is an adventure
the bike and trailer handled well

BoulevardOnTour · Posted: 02/02/2010 01:30am Post subject: lost in some interesting places

We are leaving for a trip to Albany, and back to Coffs Harbour via Darwin

I hope to get lost in some interesting places

simonjodie

I've had Destinator take me off main roads for 2km or less then back onto them even though they were straight. I've had TomTom try to drive me on a footbridge.

These sort of problems seem to be getting less frequent with updated maps, but still happen. In country towns, local knowledge is still best. Tomtom will often try to get back to a main road even though it will actually take longer.

robert333333 · Posted: 08/09/2010 12:27pm Post subject: RAC SatNav and wife don't mix

I gave my SatNav to my wife to take my son to play football at Almondvale stadium some 30 miles from my house. Took her 4 hours to get there blindly following satnav. Took her 30 mins to get back without RAC.
She threw satnav out of window... and I bought a new GPS.

basketball · Guest

I usually check with google maps where i'm going and what directions. So I will know if the GPS is pointing somewhere totally off. Especially now with Streetview in google maps it's pretty easy to confirm where you are going. I have not gotten totally lost with a GPS yet, even in Rural areas of Ontario and Alberta.

gt_at · Posted: 10/07/2010 06:56pm Post subject: Ambushed by a Tomtom GPS

I decided to go from Homehill via Clare to Charters Towers in Queensland (26KM side road), for a look and my Tomtom Go 720 sent me via Ayr instead. I aborted the Clare visit as it would have added another 160km to the trip. Six satellites were locked in at the time.
On another trip from Dalby to Kogan Creek power station via Brigalow, the Tomtom sent me on a short cut. I came around a corner, the road changed to an unmarked dirt road, car spun and bogged and it took two hours to get out of that mess. My trust level of GPS is now zero, and I now take all instructions with caution.

khouseman14 · Posted: 10/17/2010 11:45am Post subject: Danger unknown

I was taking my parents to a party a few miles from home and it said turn right, I didn't but after I had dropped them off I thought I would let it take me back the unknown way. The last time that road was used as a road must have been in the late 1500s it had never seen tarmac and it had pot holes 1' deep, you end up being damed if you go forward and damed if you reverse the torment went on for 2 miles, from that time onward I always think twice and never take a chance.

jeff.tanner1 · Posted: 11/27/2010 12:47pm Post subject: Lost with TT, all good with Garmin

My old Tom Tom used to send me down dirt roads & take me on all kinds of obscure routes. I finally got a Nuvi 265 last year & haven't had many issues with it. It does occasionally try to send me on longer routes sometimes, but it has never gotten me lost like my old Tom Tom used to do.

usrjohn44

Lost? Never. Down questionable routes? Occasionally.

That's why I always carry a map in the car with me just in case of a bit of Garmin confusion.