Sat Nav

joatmon
joatmon Posts: 8
edited August 2007 in Campaign
How many cars do you see with Sat Nav screens stuck to their windscreens within the 'area' that your not even allowed to have a stone chip in come MOT time?

Is this legal?

Comments

  • Sheddy
    Sheddy Posts: 942
    Probably
    What astonishes me is that zatnav users don't seem to use the audio only mode -provided that the sound level is turned up a bit then the unit can just lie on the passenger seat. Audio all you should need, cept for programming the thing before setting off
    Too much of anything is too much for me
  • Tourist Tony
    Tourist Tony Posts: 8,628
    One of the less bright troopers in the playpen uses a hand-held GPS to judge speed because, er, looking at their speedo is a dangerous distraction.....
    If I had a stalker, I would hug it and kiss it and call it George...or Dick
    http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=3 ... =3244&v=5K
  • Pringlecp
    Pringlecp Posts: 771
    Like most things – they can be used stupidly – but I still can’t figure out why so many people hate them so much. Yes – I have one for the car (and have used it a few times on the bike) – don’t have it on most of the time but I find it really useful as, on certain days, I need to visit several addresses I’ve never been to before – SatNav helps me find them much easier than looking places up on a map, aiming in that general direction, pulling over, checking map again etc – I’d say it has saved me loads of time and mileage not to mention the stress of getting lost and being late. As for being distracting on the windscreen – I find it no more distracting than the rear view mirror or looking at the speedometer – have any of you that slag them off so much ever tried one out? – you might be pleasantly surprised!! :? :)
    Another year older, another Budweiser
  • MattBlackBigBoysBMX
    MattBlackBigBoysBMX Posts: 398
    Sheddy wrote:
    Probably
    What astonishes me is that zatnav users don't seem to use the audio only mode -provided that the sound level is turned up a bit then the unit can just lie on the passenger seat. Audio all you should need, cept for programming the thing before setting off


    I generally rely on the voice commands, though on open roads the screen is useful for giving early warnings of potential hazards such as junctions before they are visible in front of you.
    Wheelies ARE cool.

    Zaskar X
  • dammit_peter
    dammit_peter Posts: 140
    1. "How many cars do you see with Sat Nav screens stuck to their windscreens?" None. In the past, however, I have witnessed furry dice swinging like an excitable pair of gorilla's testicles within the driver's field of vision. Perhaps you should campaign to have these banned.

    2. "Is it legal?" Do I look like a frigging policeman?

    3. "Audio all you should need". They said that about radio when TV came along.

    4. No, I don't have one.

    5. This thread is pointless.

    6. Goodbye.
    'Son of Tisander,' he cried, 'you have danced away your marriage.' 'Hippocleides doesn't care,' was the reply. Hence the common saying, 'Hippocleides doesn't care.'
  • eternal_headwind
    eternal_headwind Posts: 222
    I think this is far from pointless. I have actually witnessed a satnav accident. The motorist in question had the unit fixed to the bottom centre of the windscreen and was glued to it's output. In retrospect he was obviously lost. We were on a long windy country road at night, which I know very well. The guy tried to make so adjustment to the screen instead of making an adjustment to the steering wheel. Opps, what a nice farmers field....

    He was ok.

    I have seen a lot though where the driver looks diagonally left to a display set up as above, and this will tend to obscure the view to any cyclists on the road
  • john ponting
    john ponting Posts: 491
    My garmin satnav is not installed for around 48 weeks of the year. When it is, it is in a mount in the centre of the screen with a flexi arm reaching to the centre of the dash.

    It obstructs a clear view to a patch of bright green paint on the bonnet. It does not obstruct cyclists or motorcyclists (both of which I am).

    It does not work laying on a seat - unless I have the soft top down.

    It does not have a camera detection facility and does not encourage me to speed.

    I have a brain and the ability to think for myself.

    It also gets very confused on the many hairpin bends in the Pyrennees - the inter bend distance is just about what the box needs to detect an "off route".


    :P
  • bad company
    bad company Posts: 2,293
    Tourist Tony wrote:
    One of the less bright troopers in the playpen uses a hand-held GPS to judge speed because, er, looking at their speedo is a dangerous distraction.....

    More likely because GPS is much more accurate than any car's speedo :wink:
    I AM THE STIG - HONEST
  • Kaipaith
    Kaipaith Posts: 44
    I have a SatNav, and I use it quite often when driving. It's affixed on the windscreen, but so it doesn't obstruct my view. The vast majority of the time I follow the voice commands, but sometimes glance at the screen if the turning it indicates could be one of two, or similar. I also tend to ignore it if it tries to take me somewhere odd, like a narrow winding lane that looks suspiciously like a farm track.

    I guess it's like most things in life, and depends on how you use them. I've seen some pretty horrendous driving from folk trying to read a map at the wheel. I doubt that they would be any safer with a SatNav. Heck, I've seen some pretty dangerous cycling from folk trying to drink and ride.

    In my view, the responsibility begins and ends with the person in control of the vehicle, whatever it is. However that takes a certain amount of maturity, and sadly if you are the type who think you are OK to be in control of a moving metal box while adjusting a SatNav down a country lane you probably aren't really mature enough to accept that.

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