Well, Christmas is now definitely behind us and indeed the new year creeps on a
pace. I can't help thinking back to one afternoon just after Christmas when,
together with fourteen or fifteen members of my family, we played a sort of
parlour game with the mark 2 gps. I asked each to construct a route from their
home to a nearby address; limiting the destination to about five miles. we
then compared these with the route suggested by the mark 2 gps. There were
people from places all over the UK, thus the routes suggested were a good test
of the system. At the end of the session, some three hours later, all agreed
that the gps scored very well on these local routings, and though, with
intimate detailed knowledge of an area, it was possible to better the system's
recommendations, all agreed that the routes worked well. However, when it came
to inter-city routing, all were astounded by the negative response. On most
routes, the system just gave up and declared "incompleted route." When routes
were completed they were almost invariably considerably longer than necessary.
The system appeared to shunn motorways, though most people would use them as
the best and most economic routes. Many of the routes were inexplicably
complex and offered no gain by the complexity. The general opinion was that
there was still a lot of work to do before it would be of any practical use;
though within small distances, especially in built-up areas, it could already
be of benefit. There was general amazement of some of the smaller roads of
which the system seemed to be aware, and mystification at the refusal to accept
the presence of many motorways. Incidentally, when I took my Braillenote with
its receiver out on to the road, it told me quite correctly the number of the
motorway I was on, though it refused to provide a route in virtual mode which
used it. Please let's be hearing soon of improvements that will make this a
really worthwhile purchase. Don Cooper.
