Route Planning
By pgn
@pgntwo (22405)
Derry, Northern Ireland
June 28, 2017 4:47pm CST
You've got to be somewhere that's over 60miles away by a certain time.
Time was you'd have a map, of the paper variety, and perhaps plot a route. You'd maybe rely on (out of date!) local radio traffic announcements to keep you apprised of traffic conditions en-route.
Then came route-planning websites. The AA and the RAC both had reasonable offerings, with advance notice of roadworks and likely delays.
SATNAV systems, that stick to your car dash or windscreen help some, so long as you remember to keep the device's map current (costs money!).
Now I find myself using my phone - Google Maps, it talks to me (if I want it to!) and it handles any mis-turns I make. Also it is pretty good at conveying traffic conditions, as it uses every other nearby Android phone's data to calculate where traffic is snarled up... near real-time!
Now when will my car just take me where I ask it to go, truly hands-free...?
10 people like this
4 responses
@rebelann (117220)
• El Paso, Texas
29 Jun 17
I guess where you are 60 miles is a long stretch. I travel at least 60 miles when ever I go shopping. The shopping mall where a lot of people like to go is at least 15 miles off but at least it's only 8 miles to the grocery store.
I can easily travel 100 miles in a day if I go shopping for clothes or other non food items.
1 person likes this
@pgntwo (22405)
• Derry, Northern Ireland
29 Jun 17
All the distances scale up by a factor of 10 in the US, especially Texas - I forgot about that.
I guess the nearest shop here is within walking distance, and several of the nation's supermarkets and discounters are about 8 miles away from us, to the East or to the West.
It reminds me of a quote from Douglas Adams in Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space.
1 person likes this
@xFiacre (14804)
• Ireland
29 Jun 17
@pgntwo I used my phone thusly for the first time today to guide me successfully to a house in a housing estate that looked like a pile of spaghetti on the map. The voice I had to mute because it seemed to belong to someone who was speaking to me like I'd just left the toilet seat up.
1 person likes this
@pgntwo (22405)
• Derry, Northern Ireland
29 Jun 17
I think the voice can be changed, but the intonation remains the same. It can get a bit confused about actual house addresses, sometimes taking you down a street one earlier than the one you are aiming for, or telling you your destination is on your left when you should be looking right...
@Poppylicious (11134)
• United Kingdom
29 Jun 17
My Father-in-law was a big map enthusiast. If we were going somewhere he would look on his maps at work [He worked at a famous university library] and we would have detailed, completely up-to-date, directions to get us there. No Sat-Nav for him!
1 person likes this
@pgntwo (22405)
• Derry, Northern Ireland
29 Jun 17
I used to be that way - the hard-bound AA book was stored in the car (whatever car), and oft-used. They released a soft-bound version that was a bit too big to secrete in the car, and the covers inevitably all went curly at the corners after a while. Now what do we do? Reach for the smartphone and hope we're in an area with 4G coverage, and that the cable to charge the phone is in the glovebox ;) Oh the times, how they change.
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