[time-nuts] Problems with Garmin Nuvi

[William H. Fite]

Alas, Garmin cannot run itself with a particular focus on your neighborhood
or mine, something that New Yorkers have been learning about their city
government this past week.

Of course it is annoying when an address is off.  But, in the first place,
the error may have occurred long before the data got to the cartographers,
as you pointed out in some detail.  Beyond that...well, come take my course
in error processes.  In that course, I tell the students that perhaps the
most compelling lesson they will learn is that....s*** happens.

My point in my earlier reply is that the problem is far too complex and
multifaceted to be dismissed as "shoddy work."

Obviously, I want it to happen to someone else.  You and I are certainly in
agreement there.

Bill




On Fri, Dec 31, 2010 at 12:25 PM, John Green <wpxs472 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Quote:"
> Maybe we should cut these cartographers a little slack.  When you consider
> that Garmin will sell you a map update of the entire northern hemisphere
> for
> eighty bucks, we perhaps shouldn't get too wadded up if they miss the exact
> location of my little bungalow by a couple of hundred feet.  After all,
> we're not talking about GPS error here, but address designation.  And there
> are quite a few little bungalows in all of North America...
>
> Bill"
> You and I look at that a little differently. If I pay $80 for a map, I
> want the part that concerns me to be correct. I could care less about
> the rest of the US, I want my little neighborhood to be right.
> Sorry, no slack cutting here.
> I think the problem arises because the GPS calculates the street
> address. There is a standard way of assigning addresses but sometimes
> counties deviate. My ex wife worked in that business a while and she
> said there are 1000 addresses per mile, or one every 5.28 feet. But,
> counties, who are legally correct even if they are wrong do things for
> their own reasons. My ex said she re addressed an entire street once
> because it was done by the developer and done incorrectly only to have
> to restore the older, incorrect addresses after the residents
> objected. There are a lot of rules concerning addressing but they are
> not always followed. If the GPS looks at the end of a road and
> calculates the address based on distance, I am surprised it ever gets
> one right. Incidentally, Google maps has my address wrong about 100
> feet in the other direction.
>
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