The Mad Motorists Guide To Sat Navs
Sat
navs are perhaps the most important invention to affect cars since Karl
Benz
perfected the internal combustion engine. Probably.
The
quest for the best sat nav has become a quest that holds more importace
than
the quest for the Holy Grail, Noahs Ark or the best balti house in
Manchester...
Electronics
manufacturers like Tom-Tom, Garmin and even Sony spend more money than
it takes
to run a small country in the pursuit of producing and selling the best
sat nav
on the market. But what constitutes "the best sat nav"? Recent map
updates? Most POIs? Sexiest female (or male) voice?
Let
The
Mad Motorist decipher the technobabble you can expect:
Glossary
- POIs:
basically reference points on your sat nav. These are programmed in by
some
spotty little cedric whilst your sat nav is being assembled. The bad
news is
that the cecric corps don't actually know the area
they plot the POIs
in, so you should only take POIs as just approximations.
- PostCode
Seach:
in the UK (or "Great Britain", and we are so
great, children...) we have post codes. These are like zip codes, but
easier to
remember. Nearly all sat navs give you the 8 digit postal code search
option.
But when you factor in the actual house or building number, the
location you're
heading tomight not be correct. The Mad Motorist
knows of a case where
paramedics used a sat nav and nearly missed an emergency call by 250
yards
("metres" in Euros...). Luckily one medic knew the local area so
everybody lived that day. But again it proves that satellite navigation
systems
aren't infallible.
- Sat
Nav accessories:
what it says on the tin. These things accessorise your in car
GPS. Think of them as electro-bling. They add that little bit extra to
your sat
nav. They mostly comprise map updates, power connectors, cases, even
screen
protectors.