Thursday, March 21, 2013
Navigation software
My Garmin broke down (just completely became non-functional) after about three years. We replaced it with a Magellan. I'm shocked by its inefficient navigation. I have a 15-20 minute drive from work to home, and suffice to say that I know every single way, having to take detours over the years for construction, traffic, weather, etc. So, I was keen to see what Magellan was going to tell me.
Well, it kept suggesting the longest of those routes. As I kept ignoring it, and I kept driving my normal way home, it kept repointing me back, asking me to do a u-turn. It finally dawned on me that, for whatever reason, it had eliminated (or never considered) the obvious path. When I finally got onto the second-to-last-street that leads to home, it FINALLY suggested I stay on that road until I get home. And the final arrival time was three minutes faster than its original suggested route, and 4-5 minutes the subsequent updated routes as I kept ignoring them.
I understand this is a tough thing to program. But Garmin never gave me problems, and Google Maps never gave me problems, and neither did Mapquest. So, they were able to figure it out. Wouldn't Google Maps licence their software (or if Google already licences it from someone else, wouldn't they also licence to Magellan)?
And checking the reviews on Amazon, I'm not alone.
Anyway, the main purpose of the navigator (for me) is to stop me from getting lost (I have a horrible sense of direction without a sun around... seriously... no one could possibly be worse than me at night).? So, for me, Magellan's features is more important than its efficiency.
I'm just more interested in the technical background, the navigational programming, development, and/or licencing. If you guys have any insights, I'd love to hear them.
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