TomTom and other navigation systems
Posted on December 2, 2006 • 2 min read • 281 words
Navigation systems like TomTom , Google Maps, and other products have become almost indispensable in our daily lives. They have helped us reduce getting lost and get us from point A to point B faster and easier. But as convenient as they are, there are still certain drawbacks to using these devices.
One of the downsides of using these kinds of systems is that you become less good at reading maps, or at least you hardly practice it. In the past, before we had these devices, we were used to finding our way by navigating based on road signs, street names, and other large books full of maps. Now, we rely on the navigation system to tell us where to go. And perhaps worse, the number of road signs is also decreasing, precisely because we have these systems.
Another issue is that you have to follow navigation systems blindly. If you don’t, you’re stuck. If you do, you’re sometimes still stuck 🙂 Think, for example, of software errors, roads that are not yet on the map, or traffic situations that have changed since the map was added.
I went to Amersfoort today. “Let’s see where TomTom takes us.”
The funny thing is that TomTom indicated a different route than the one I normally take.
The route I usually follow has much more variety. This makes the route seem shorter. The route that TomTom wanted me to follow went through the vast areas of the former Zuiderzee, in other words: little variety.
In the end, the routes didn’t differ that much in terms of time. I think I’ll follow my own route again next time instead of blindly following a navigation system.
