Sat Nav Positioning

[gdaybruce]

Sitting behind a Fiesta in a traffic queue this morning, I couldn't help notice that the driver in front had stuck their sat nav bang in the middle of the windscreen, below and slightly to the right of the rear view mirror and thereby obscuring a massive arc of vision including, I would guess, the view of pedestrians about to step onto a crossing. Extraordinary that it doesn't seem to occur to them that this is NOT A GOOD THING!

And to think I get (mildly) upset when my wife leaves a car park ticket stuck on edge of the screen!

[henrycrun]

Yup always amazed by this. I do wonder why drivers don't at least try to get on with the audio only. I chuck the thing on the passenger seat and just turn up the volume.
You wouldn't ask a passenger to map read by waving the map in your face and pointing at it !
Then again its not called Prat Nav for a reason....

Edited by henrycrun on Tuesday 2nd December 15:49

[cj_eds]

Had a hire car a few months ago that must've been driven by the same driver. One of those circular marks left by a sat nav holder smack in the middle of the window. No idea how they could have seen out if it was mounted where the mark was.

[waremark]

henrycrun said:

Yup always amazed by this. I do wonder why drivers don't at least try to get on with the audio only. I chuck the thing on the passenger seat and just turn up the volume.
You wouldn't ask a passenger to map read by waving the map in your face and pointing at it !
Then again its not called Prat Nav for a reason....

Edited by henrycrun on Tuesday 2nd December 15:49

Different peoples' brains work in different ways. For me, it takes me far more concentration to take in spoken instructions than visual ones - I normally leave the sound off and rely on the map/graphic.

And when I am a map-reading passenger I don't hold the map up, but I do often point.

[p1esk]

waremark said:

henrycrun said:

Yup always amazed by this. I do wonder why drivers don't at least try to get on with the audio only. I chuck the thing on the passenger seat and just turn up the volume.
You wouldn't ask a passenger to map read by waving the map in your face and pointing at it !
Then again its not called Prat Nav for a reason....

Edited by henrycrun on Tuesday 2nd December 15:49

Different peoples' brains work in different ways. For me, it takes me far more concentration to take in spoken instructions than visual ones - I normally leave the sound off and rely on the map/graphic.

I like sound and vision - they're both useful. The spoken instructions give advance warning that a glance at the screen might be helpful.

Best wishes all,
Dave.

[robwales]

I've seen quite a few people with them directly under the rear view mirror.

Mine is always in the bottom left of the screen, right in the corner and the cable stuffed into the gaps between the interior panels.

I use voice+graphics, the graphics are useful for a confirmation glance especially at complex junctions.

[heebeegeetee]

henrycrun said:

Yup always amazed by this. I do wonder why drivers don't at least try to get on with the audio only. I chuck the thing on the passenger seat and just turn up the volume.
You wouldn't ask a passenger to map read by waving the map in your face and pointing at it !
Then again its not called Prat Nav for a reason....

You can't go far on audio only, nowhere at all i'd say. Not Tom Tom anyway. Just the other night i had a right turn to do which she didn't say a word about.

Don't see the difference between looking at sat nav and looking at road signs.

[Zeek]

I notice this a lot, especially at night when they are lit up. Smack bang in the middle of the windscreen.

On Saturday I had to take evasive action on a dual carriageway by a woman directly along side me, who moved from the left lane into me, without looking or signalling. This dumb cow had a "Baby on board" sign hanging perfectly central in the rear window...

[Don]

I put the Sat Nav in the middle of the windscreen - between the driver's and passenger's seats that is. Right at the bottom so it sits just off the dash.

I find it doesn't obscure anything but a bit of bonnet at that so I'm not losing any vision at all.

But yes - the nutters who put the damn thing right in the middle of their field of vision - what's that about? Do they think they are now "driving on instruments" or something?

I am sure there must already have been prosecutions for careless driving due to Sat Nav use. The important thing to remember is not to blame the goddamn Sat Nav like so many of the huffenpuffs seem to want to. It's not Sat Nav to blame. It's FECKWITS! If they weren't carrying out their feckwittery with a Sat Nav they'd find something else to do it with...

You used to see people with maps open on the dash obscuring half the windscreen too.

[p1esk]

robwales said:

I've seen quite a few people with them directly under the rear view mirror.

Mine is always in the bottom left of the screen, right in the corner and the cable stuffed into the gaps between the interior panels.

I use voice+graphics, the graphics are useful for a confirmation glance especially at complex junctions.

LHD ?

Best wishes all,
Dave.

[p1esk]

Don said:

I put the Sat Nav in the middle of the windscreen - between the driver's and passenger's seats that is. Right at the bottom so it sits just off the dash.

I find it doesn't obscure anything but a bit of bonnet at that so I'm not losing any vision at all.

But yes - the nutters who put the damn thing right in the middle of their field of vision - what's that about? Do they think they are now "driving on instruments" or something?

I am sure there must already have been prosecutions for careless driving due to Sat Nav use. The important thing to remember is not to blame the goddamn Sat Nav like so many of the huffenpuffs seem to want to. It's not Sat Nav to blame. It's FECKWITS! If they weren't carrying out their feckwittery with a Sat Nav they'd find something else to do it with...

You used to see people with maps open on the dash obscuring half the windscreen too.

Quite right.

Best wishes all,
Dave.

[Strangely Brown]

It's even worse when they do it at night. The obviously don't realise that they cannot see past it because of the bright light from the screen creating massive pools of blackness either side of it.

Question for any BiB present?

Would you stop someone with a SatNaff in the middle of the screen and give them advice on how not to be a complete nob? After all, it *IS* fking dangerous.

[Strangely Brown]

To add to that... IMO it should be an endorsable offence to place any object on the screen within the area swept by the wipers. If you can fail an MOT for a chip in that area then why can you not be prosecuted for putting a fking great sat nav right in your line of vision?

Edited by Strangely Brown on Wednesday 3rd December 10:37

[gdaybruce]

Strangely Brown said:

It's even worse when they do it at night. The obviously don't realise that they cannot see past it because of the bright light from the screen creating massive pools of blackness either side of it.

I agree - they're obviously unaware that there's a night time setting to eliminate glare. In fact, I've just bought a new Tom Tom to replace my old one (to get me to Le Mans without having to struggle with multiple pages of the road atlas) and I see that it switches to dark settings automatically when the sun goes down. Haven't tried it out yet, though, because its gone away until Christmas Day!

[TonyHetherington]

robwales said:

I use voice+graphics, the graphics are useful for a confirmation glance especially at complex junctions.

[heebeegeetee]

Is everybody aware that these things have brightness settings? It's not just a question of using day and night settings. I prefer the day settings at all times because i prefer the graphics, but I reduce the brightness to zero. On the night settings you still need to reduce the brightness.

Having said that i have seen one Nissan Micra with the sat nav bang in the middle of the screen, on full brightness at night. It was like a beacon inside his car, and I could see from the way he was driving that he was having difficulty seeing where he was going.

[waremark]

heebeegeetee said:

Is everybody aware that these things have brightness settings? It's not just a question of using day and night settings. I prefer the day settings at all times because i prefer the graphics, but I reduce the brightness to zero. On the night settings you still need to reduce the brightness.

Interesting. I have my TT auto switching day/night, with night on 10% brightness. Seems ok. I use it in the area swept by wipers! But at the bottom of the screen where it mainly obscures bonnet. Absolutely not an issue from a vision point of view.

[heebeegeetee]

waremark said:

heebeegeetee said:

Is everybody aware that these things have brightness settings? It's not just a question of using day and night settings. I prefer the day settings at all times because i prefer the graphics, but I reduce the brightness to zero. On the night settings you still need to reduce the brightness.

Interesting. I have my TT auto switching day/night, with night on 10% brightness. Seems ok. I use it in the area swept by wipers! But at the bottom of the screen where it mainly obscures bonnet. Absolutely not an issue from a vision point of view.

Yeah, i just don't like the night time graphics though.

[robwales]

p1esk said:

robwales said:

Mine is always in the bottom left of the screen,

LHD ?

Best wishes all,
Dave.

I meant right.. And to think I navigate on rallies!

[ipwn]

I tend to study the rough route on maps.google.

Then have the sat nav on. So I have a gist of where to go.