Autoblog

On Engadget I think, not here.

↓↑report

Jalopnik as well

↓↑report

Agreed. Stupidity like this needs to be made exemplary. Bottom line, this moron should not be driving a bus full of kids.

My last speeding ticket on HWY 89 here in Tahoe was $370.00 (courtesy of a CHP revenue collector) going 69 in 55 MPH zone on empty road at 11 a clock at night.

This wanker totals a pretty nice coach, almost hurts innocent children and damages public property and get barely half that fine. What gives?

↓↑report

Ross, I totally disagree. This could lead to inaccuracies when there is bridgework or repaving and law suits whenever someone fails to observe the local signs, or get into the proper lane. How much lawyer fees and settlement costs are you willing to pay for in your GPS price.

↓↑report

Please put a large orange flag on your vehicle so I can take a different route when I see you.

↓↑report

Yeah, Garmin ought to pay.

Once I pay up for a nav system, I, like the bus driver, have an inalienable right to no longer look where I'm going.

I know that very bridge. At a glance, one can tell it's low. Indeed, it's even got signs on it announcing its height. The bus driver ignored them. And ignored what he could clearly see. We don't want to encourage that kind of behavior.

↓↑report

Poppycock. Garmin should just be more careful about route selections and road managers need to keep Garmin up-to-date. It's indefensible and unconscionable that Garmin would point the way clear into a devastating accident. Garmin's routes could run people off cliffs, too, and if you singular have your way, they always will. Garmin has the resources to check the way forward, they're the ones who have been over the ground before, after all. What use is GPS if we can't count on the information it provides? Garmin might get away with scheduling me into city traffic I could have avoided, but sending me the wrong way on a one-way street just won't do, and Garmin has got to take responsibility and carry proper insurance so they can do whatever they can to mitigate travel dangers and inconvenience. It is, after all, what they're in business to do. Caveat emptor just won't do here. If America is ever going to be able to advance, we have got to do this together and that means holding road information providers accountable.

↓↑report

Does the GPS know how tall your vehicle is? Would this driver have put in a height if you could?

That bridge is fine for most vehicles, though it is so obviously low when you approach it that I don't see how someone in a bus would not ask themselves "can I fit?"

This is not Garmin's fault and we should not be even entertaining putting blame on them. We should be trying to get more people to take responsibility for their own actions, not give them an easy out.

↓↑report

GPS knows altitude, yes. Yes, it knows how tall your vehicle is by differential altitude it can tell if you're in a Porche or if you're in a Bus. If it doesn't ask you, then it should figure it out all by itself by its road behavior--how fast you're going up hills and around curves, by comparing your parking space in rest areas to known vehicles, it can look on the web itself, and it should ask if it can't figure it out on its own. If "we should be trying to get more people to take responsibility for their own actions, not give them an easy out" then who needs GPS in the first place? Your way leads to more unneceary deaths on the highway because people who could have been warned or instructed won't be because you let Garmin get off Scott free when they did a lousy job because they were lazy. Garmin should know which roads are passable, which aren't if you're vehicle is a Jeep or a bicycle, if you're on foot hiking, whatever.
The bus driver had his Garmin GPS, a miracle of modern techology, the most up to day technology available. Surely road signs are wrong more than satellite navigation systems, right? Perhaps not, but that's not what Garmin advertises, is it?
A GPS unit should exclude trucks from no trucks routes. Cars from bicycle trails, bicycles from foot traffic only trails and offer special helps for each category automatically. Garmin should LISTEN to it's units in the field, Garmin should LEARN the best and safest routes, the most scenic routes, the least trafficked routes, the best places to stop, etc, even the seasons and the weather, advising people driving too fast for conditions, and reporting bad drivers to the police so they can be taken off of the roads, limit machine speeds to under speed limits, signal other traffic for turns by with vehicle lights and other people's GPS, even help people learn to drive, interpret roadsigns in various systems and languages, buoys, and hiking blazes.
Making people into smug republicans is not going to stop the carnage taking place on our nation's roads every day. It's 50 X's the Iraq war death rate every year here.

↓↑report

Garmin should just pay up. If Garmin expects people to trust their equipment, they can keep track of low bridges in their database.


I agree!!!! Garmin needs to get their systems up to date. I use mine regularly, and last week it told me to make a right turn...problem was it was onto a one way street...IN THE OTHER DIRECTION!!!!!

And forget about using their built-in databases to find restaurants or businesses. Mine was updated 4 months ago to the MOST UP TO DATE software, and it STILL lists businesses that have been defunct for OVER 4 YEARS.

They just don't keep up (or even attempt to) with roads & streets.

↓↑report