The Harlow Report - GIS

ISSN 0742-468X
Since 1978
On-line Since
Y2K

Can’t Navigate Out of a Paper Bag

This article originally appeard at “Cranky Customer.com”
by Kit Cassingham

Introduction

What follows is an article posted at “Cranky Customer.com”, by a customer who purchased a new car with an in-car navigation system. At the end of the excerpt, there is a link to the full article. If you are remotely involved in GIS, you should latch on to this article. It so clearly describes what happens when developers think like developers and lawyers, but not like end-users. For example, only a lawyer would force a user the accept the terms of the EULA every time the car is started!

The Excerpt

I recently bought a Mercury Mariner Hybrid. I selected the Mariner over Ford’s Escape because Mercury is known for slightly higher luxury and more amenities. I opted for their $1,200 navigation system because I need help getting to emergency calls (I’m a first responder with the local EMS agency), especially in the middle of the night in my rural location. I thought if it’s a Mercury, it’s got to be good. Not!

I love my new car. Except for the navigation system.

When I bought the car I got an outdated navigation map disk -- a new one had been released a couple of months before, but my car came with an older one. But even with an updated map disk, the system can’t navigate me down my rural county road (not a huge surprise, I guess), or even to the hospital in the next town. Oh, it knows about the roads, and the hospital, and it will show them to me, but the advertised "turn-by-turn voice guidance" doesn’t work most of the time I’ve tried it. It can’t even take me directly to the airport (the convoluted path of left turns, right turns, and circle-arounds -- rather than just going straight down the highway -- gave me quite a laugh. So much for its “shortest route” promise!)

Another laughable feature of this expensive navigation system is that I have to agree to the terms of the manufacturer every time I start my car, even if it’s just a quick gas stop and it’s already navigating me to a destination. Why can’t I do that once and be done with it?

The Rest of the Posting

Don’t stop here. Find out how many other stupid things this navigation system can do. Then ask yourself how you implement your systems. “Cranky Customer: Can’t Navigate Out of a Paper Bag”"