Navigation System Woes

[dbs600]

When on a road where there is another road traveling the same direction immediately next to the road you’re on, does your navigation system ever ‘think’ you’re on the other road, not the one you’re actually on?

And when it finally realizes you’re on the wrong road, instead of having you continue on the wrong road so to merge with the correct road ahead, does it route a detour adding miles and time to your trip?

I keep mine set to “Efficient”, but this happened last night when rushing to an event. Instead of listening to the system, which added 20 minutes to my ETA, I stayed on the road, as I saw it followed the same path the correct road did (when zooming out of the map) and luckily came upon a ramp seemlessly merging the two roads!

The fact the system couldn’t recognize which road I was on is less troubling than it adding miles and time when same was not necessary.

Thoughts?

[BMWrules7]

Originally Posted by dbs600

When on a road where there is another road traveling the same direction immediately next to the road you’re on, does your navigation system ever ‘think’ you’re on the other road, not the one you’re actually on?

And when it finally realizes you’re on the wrong road, instead of having you continue on the wrong road so to merge with the correct road ahead, does it route a detour adding miles and time to your trip?

I keep mine set to “Efficient”, but this happened last night when rushing to an event. Instead of listening to the system, which added 20 minutes to my ETA, I stayed on the road, as I saw it followed the same path the correct road did (when zooming out of the map) and luckily came upon a ramp seemlessly merging the two roads!

The fact the system couldn’t recognize which road I was on is less troubling than it adding miles and time when same was not necessary.

Thoughts?

Gps is accurate to about 15 meters or ~50 feet on a good day. On a bad day it could be worse.

Roads that are closely parallel can confuse the navigation system.

The US government owns and manages the gps satellites. At a moments notice, our government can detune the GPS system to kill its accuracy to mess up our enemies. We actually did this during the Gulf war. However, the US promised not to do this anymore.

Anyway, future GPS systems will be more accurate with the new satellites. Plus, advanced systems can make use of augmentation today to improve accuracy.

Nevertheless, your GPS navigation can be confused by closely parallel roads.

[dbs600]

Thanks, but I guess my main concern is that when it re-route, it did so in a way that was not accurate, as all I had to do was stay on the same road until it merged, which was mapped and should've been considered by the system...? :|