Re: Things we remember...

In article
<08979c01-1409-42ae-bde0-20cbe94dff2a@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
cryptoguy <treifamily@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Nov 14, 8:08 pm, Mike Ash <m...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
In article
<d5a0ea7c-ade2-4084-ac08-83248e740...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,

 cryptoguy <treifam...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The in-dash touch screen has a lot more controls. I can, for example,
start the GPS to navigate to a pre-programmed location, or locate the
nearest gas station.

Complex operations (enter a new street address into the GPS, for
example) require the car to be stopped.

I have to say that this kind of restriction is stupid and often
counterproductive. There exist passengers, and these passengers can
reprogram a GPS with perfect safety without stopping the car.

In entirely agree - this appears to be design driven by lawyers rather
than human beings.

Right. As long as the blame can't be placed on them, they don't care
about the dangers.

My GPS, interestingly enough, makes it optional to allow reprogramming
it while on the move. I assume this is meant for parents with teenage
drivers, but could also be useful for people who want to be safe but
have poor self control.

I wish mine did that. There are a lot of things about it I could
improve, but it still beats trying to deal with a road atlas.

Even an incredibly bad car GPS is still way better than the old
fashioned way. My first time ever driving west of the Great Plains was
from San Francisco to Reno, in the winter, at night, with poor Google
directions printed out. When I picked up my rental car, they didn't have
exactly what I had reserved, so they gave me something a bit better,
with a navigation system. This was some god-awful thing that looked like
it must have been made in about 1995. 2D wireframe graphics, all text
had to be entered using a little arrow pad, etc. Still, it turned that
nighttime trip in a strange place from a nightmare to a piece of cake. I
don't think I would have made it if they hadn't run out of the car I had
reserved.

Still, the Tomtom I have for my own car is way better.

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon
.

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