February 21st 2009 I’ve always wondered how accurate auto navigation systems like
I’ve always wondered how accurate auto navigation systems like GPS really are. They’ve always seemed a little extravagant to me, and the thought of driving around with a computerized voice telling me how to get somewhere seemed a little too futuristic to be true. But that changed when I was on vacation recently and had the opportunity to use a rental car equipped with one of the new auto navigation systems.
I was in Florida where it can be impossible to find your way around, especially in the packed tourist cities like Orlando. We were staying on Disney property so my brother could attend a conference, so my days were free to explore the area. Being by myself, I didn’t want to get lost, so I figured it would be as good a time as any to do some research on auto navigation systems. I rented an Explorer with a GPS unit installed in the dash, and I immediately began to test it. I wanted to see if it could accurately lead me back to my hotel and to other short destinations that I already had the directions for.
When it comes to choosing among the varieties of GPS devices out there, ease of use should be the first feature you look for when pricing auto navigation systems. If something is too complicated, it isn’t a good idea to have it in your vehicle. You’ll never make it to your destination if you are fiddling with your navigation system and wreck. Look for one you can easily learn to use, and one that has a display you can easily make sense of when used. You may find that some models have too small of a display screen and that they features are complicated. You want to skip a model that is not user-friendly.
Now, practically every car on the road may be equipped with a GPS, but this does not really mean that you ought to join the bandwagon yourself. If you don’t want to spend the money on handheld GPS just yet, you can get the same service through your cell phone. There are services that will send directions through your cell phone, but this will still cost you some money. This might be the way to go if you don’t travel a lot, and only need driving directions a few times a year.