XPost: rec.arts.sf.written, rec.arts.sf.science   
   From: rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com   
      
   Robert Bannister  wrote   
   > Greg Goss wrote   
   >> Rod Speed  wrote   
   >>> Greg Goss  wrote   
      
   >>>> My wife has a fairly recent GPS in her car.  Once, we had programmed   
   >>>> the destination into the unit because we needed it for the final   
   >>>> navigation -- we knew the way for the first fifteen miles.  But, with   
   >>>> very little warning, it abruptly told us to take an exit three miles   
   >>>> before the obvious one, and adjusted the time-to-destination   
   >>>> accordingly.  As we turned onto the overpass, we saw traffic   
   >>>> backing up from something further down the road.   
      
   >>> That is just poor implementation.   
      
   >> I think you're misreading the anecdote.  This was a good   
   >> implementation -- the traffic jam was still forming up, and it   
   >> successfully got us out of it.  If traffic starts to jam up when we're   
   >> thirty seconds from the last exit for several miles, a sudden change   
   >> is better than no change.   
      
   >>>> How is traffic information sent to GPS units?   
      
   >>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_message_channel   
      
   > From the link, I see that I was wrong: we do have that service   
   > in Australia, but it is limited to the few car companies that   
   > have made a commercial arrangement with the company.   
      
   That is in fact the absolute vast bulk of those flogging GPS systems here.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)