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| Sat Nav v Cabbie who's the winner? http://www.taxi-driver.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4233 |
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| Author: | JD [ Mon Aug 21, 2006 12:40 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Sat Nav v Cabbie who's the winner? |
Nothing new here, you can substitute London for any other area in the country, the only difference is the scale. I've had people with sat nav asking me directions when their aid has got it wrong and I bet of you have too? ...................................................................................... The Business August 20, 2006 HEADLINE: Sat Nav? It ain't a patch on 'the knowledge', guv BYLINE: Tony Glover - Technology Editor THE new in-car satellite navigation systems made by companies such as Sony and Tom Tom, which are proving increasingly popular all over the world, have failed the ultimate test - the London cabbie. According to Bob Oddy, general secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers' Association, the new devices are "totally and utterly impractical" for professional drivers of London's distinctive black licensed Hackney cabs. The cabs were first licensed as horse-drawn carriages in the 17th century and their drivers are the aristocrats of their profession. Unlike cab driver in cities such as New York, the London licensed taxi drivers are not seen as unskilled workers; they must pass a gruelling exam known as "the knowledge" which not only involves knowing every street in London but also the fastest routes between them. Acquiring this familiarity can take up to three years. "All licensed cab drivers in London have 'the knowledge'," said Oddy. "In every test between a London cabbie and a driver using a satellite navigation device, the device has not been up to the job. "In the real world, their performance is even worse. If, for instance, someone hails a cab in Regent Street in the heart of London and asks to be taken to Waterloo station, the cabbie will work out the quickest of several possible routes according to the traffic flow at that particular time of day and drive off straight away. Using satellite navigation would involve stopping the cab and pulling over, not possible in Regent Street, and typing in the street name and postal code, which the customer may not know." Oddy also disputes that the devices can match an experienced cabbie when it comes to working out the fastest routes at different times of day. London cab drivers also know the location of destinations such as the main theatres and hotels in the West End. "The device manufacturers believe they can input all this information digitally, but it never seems to work as effectively as an experienced cabbie," said Oddy. A very small percentage of London cab drivers have installed satellite navigation systems in their cabs, but Oddy insists that these are used as a back-up by the drivers to plan routes when they are asked to drive outside of London or need to take a trip to an unfamiliar suburb. ................................................................................ |
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| Author: | Bart [ Mon Aug 21, 2006 1:31 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Sat Nav v Cabbie who's the winner? |
JD wrote: A very small percentage of London cab drivers have installed satellite navigation systems in their cabs, ................................................................................
Can't speak for Green badges but in/around Romford I would say well over 50% have them. I wouldn't be without mine, any driver who tells you he knows every road in his area is telling a lie. I find mine particually useful for finding house numbers without having to drive at 5mph |
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| Author: | JD [ Fri Aug 25, 2006 6:15 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Personally I think SAT NAV systems can only be described as an aid to the knowledge of local licensing areas and not a direct substitute. There are many Sat NAV systems that can and probably do malfunction but even more to the point send you down streets and roads which are inaccessible. Many drivers do not have them and indeed may find them too expensive for what they are? All in all there is no substitute for practical knowledge and that is why knowledge tests are essential for quality controls. Regards JD .............................................................. Daily Mail March 20, 2006 Monday HEADLINE: ROUND THE BEND; It's the new must-have for motorists, but is Sat-Nav a blessing or a curse? BYLINE: NEIL LYNDON THE bridge was tiny and the lorry was very large. Nobody with a grain of human sense would ever have attempted to drive the articulated truck over Morley Bridge in Devon and the driver didn't get very far, in fact not even halfway, before he became stuck fast. Police closed the road for four hours and set about knocking down walls and lopping branches off trees to free the vehicle. Eventually it was inched slowly back off the bridge. What on earth was the driver doing there in the first place? He should have stuck to the main A383 near Newton Abbott. But he had heard a voice from a higher authority directing him to Morley Bridge. And that voice came from the satellite navigation system in his cab. In earlier ages, men and women would shout at each other in one of married life's little rituals while they motored around getting increasingly lost. Now you don't even need a companion in the car. The artificial intelligence of a computer and the unblinking face of its screen can get you just as lost - and make you just as angry. Satellite navigation systems are offered as an extra in virtually all new cars, or you can buy your own and attach it to the dashboard. They are so sophisticated that they can show you the shortest route; the quickest route; a route using motorways; a route without motorways; just about any route they choose. And therein lies the problem: it's the system that chooses the route, not the driver. According to a recent report, the spread of satellite navigation systems has led to an unprecedented growth in traffic on inaccessible and little-used country roads where any human being with a bean of a brain would know better than to attempt to drive a car. Calculating the shortest route from your point of departure at A, the sat-nav system sees that, if you turn left at The Dog and Duck and go up over the hill on that unclassified lane, you will arrive at B by a shorter route than if you had stayed on the main road that meanders, with seeming pointlessness, all the way around the hill. The system cannot comprehend what the two locals sitting outside the pub with their pints of cider would gladly have told you - if you had asked - that nobody has tried to drive a car over that hill since the Great Train Robbers were making their getaway. This is for the simple reason that, if you meet a tractor coming the other way, you'll have to reverse for two miles down a 1:3 incline. A LACK of local knowledge is only one of the many maddening shortcomings of sat-nav. Another is the system's failure to foresee all the varieties of possible hazards that lie ahead. No doubt this soon became clear to the driver of the lorry on Morley Bridge. His sat-nav obviously couldn't tell him that Morley Bridge has not been widened since the age of the horse and cart. My own experience of sat-nav goes back almost to its earliest days. In 1995, when BMW first introduced sat-nav into its super-luxurious 7 Series limousine, my wife and I were invited to spend a weekend in Germany trying it out. In that primitive era, the system took its geographical fix from coordinates determined by at least six satellites (these days, they can work off three). Everything went miraculously well until the car lost contact with the satellites - at which point the system started spouting gobbledegook. When I uttered the cry 'This woman's gone completely mad!', it wasn't directed at my wife. The computerised commandant in that BMW had just authoritatively insisted on directing us straight into the waters of the Rhine. Such was my faith, by that point, in the superior intelligence of the machine that I almost obeyed. And that is another of the difficulties: drivers are becoming slaves to the disembodied voice. The map-reading intelligence of the sat-nav system is no less fallible than the accountancy capabilities of the computer and each depends on its operator. But why do those operators always insist that the systems can't possibly have gone wrong? Many taxi drivers will now insist that the machine is right, even when the passenger trapped in the back seat knows different. One who is carrying you towards Croydon in Surrey when you want to go to Bromley in Kent will confidently reassure you that the satnav system is infallible in the same patronising tones as the checkout assistant at the supermarket who is adamant that there cannot be a mistake in your bill because 'the machine is always right'. ....................................................................... |
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