October 7, 2022

Navigation Nightmares

 So, last week we landed home safely after our recent road trip to see my mother-in-law.  I will not do a recap post, as nothing notable happened other than eating copious amounts of food (my God, these people and their food!  Every time I turned around someone was offering me something to eat, never mind the fact I was still swallowing something that someone else had just insisted I eat) and catching up (it was truly a wonderful visit and I am glad we went).  But I want to discuss the one issue that kept cropping up over and over again during this trip in an annoyingly, random manner.

What you should know is that we had our old route down pat.  We didn't need navigation.  Usually, the trip went like this - we would drive up to Mom's house in PA and we would either stay there the entire time OR we would stay for the night and take her with us up to CT to see my brother-in-law and his family.  Since she has moved to CT our trip would entail a completely different and new route for our trip.

So, since are completely in touch with technology and hip to the ways of the world these days, we turned to Google Maps.  Failing that, we also had options to use Waze and whatever random navigation aid that my car provides.  We were set is what I'm trying to convey.  Or so we thought.

Early on, the first bit of the trip was part of our usual route so no navigation was necessary.  But once navigation was necessary we discovered that The Husband's Google Maps had decided it didn't to talk to us after the initial instruction, oh sure it would show the route on the phone but wouldn't say a word.  So we turned to the weird navigation system in my car which, somehow, works through an app on my phone.

We quickly discovered that this particular navigation system would lag - it would tell us to turn well after we had already made the turn, etc.  So basically, it was completely useless.

We then went to Waze on my phone...which also stopped talking after telling us to drive safely  

OMG!  We were losing our minds.  FINALLY, The Husband's Google Maps decided it wasn't mad at us anymore and directed us to the hotel we had planned to stop for the night.

This scenario repeated itself over and over again throughout the entire trip; it's an actual miracle that we even made it there...much less home.  Then, as we were navigating ourselves to the last hotel for the trip home, my Google Maps thought it would be a great idea to send us to the hotel via a 2.5 mile trip through a college town (luckily she was on speaking terms with us at the time); without informing us that had we just gone to the next exit, we would have been on the very doorstep of the hotel we were trying to find.  I think, at this point, she was just being mean.

So today, I tested it again in my own backyard.  I needed to return some books to the library.  Now, I KNOW where the library is but wanted to see if it would work.  I put in the address for the library into Google Maps and hit start.  It told me to get on the main road.  And then stopped.  Then about halfway down the main road, it piped up and told me again to get on the main road.  And then remained silent and frozen for the remainder of the trip - not even bothering to show me the directions on the screen.

For the journey back to the house, I used Waze.  Again, I was told to get on the main road and drive safely.  And then she clammed up and froze, in the very same way Google Maps did on the trip to the library.

Every single person we have described this issue to thinks we are crazy; because they have NEVER had these issues.

What the actual hell is going on here?  We are not stupid people.  We are not luddites.  I've tried using these apps with the Bluetooth on and off in the car - it doesn't matter.  The apps will only work when they want to work, it seems.

Have any of you had these issues with a navigation app?  Are we crazy?  Or are we missing some vital piece to navigating?  Do you know WHY this is happening and what we can do to fix it (of course, I have Googled it to death and still haven't figured out what is wrong).  Or should we be using a different application altogether since, obviously, these three don't work well.

23 comments:

  1. I rarely use them, so I don't even know what Waze is. Hope you get this problem figured out soon, my friend!

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    1. I don't use them often, DJan but when I do, I want them to work!

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  2. Technology is SO WEIRD! This summer, when we were on our big road trip, our navigator had a nervous breakdown. That is the only explanation for what happened. It is a built in navigation system in my car, and the screen shows where you are on the map. But all of a sudden, the map was going BACKWARDS. We were going... south, say. But on the map, the little cursor representing our car was going north. IT WAS SO BIZARRE. We never did figure out what caused it -- some sort of magnetic field we drove through??? Who knows?!?!?! But it eventually stopped and started behaving the way it was supposed to.

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    1. Right?! It was the oddest thing. It's even more random that it doesn't even work at home. I'm sure it's something simple that I'm overlooking.

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  3. Glad the trip went well overall but the navigation hassle sounds SO frustrating. I have never had this happen so I'm clueless on how to help but hope it never happens again! I am so, so, so dependent on my GPS for navigating anywhere outside of my local area.

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    1. Agreed - totally dependent on it when I'm away from familiar areas.

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  4. I'm not surprised that your little GPS friend was incorrect and truculent. We've had that happen on vacations and it seems arbitrary. Willful, even.

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    1. Maybe it's punishing us since we so rarely use it.

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  5. I've never had that happen with google maps, and I've never heard of Waze! So I guess I'm not very helpful. Glad you had a good trip! I was wondering how it went.

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    1. That's what everyone tells us. I'm glad it works for you when you need it to do so. Yes, the trip itself was exhausting but we had such a nice time visiting with everyone. Mom is so happy in her new home, so that makes me happy.

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  6. Did you have your blue tooth on? We have had issues when trying to use the navigation apps through the cars blue tooth. When that happens we turn off Bluetooth and have the sound come through the phone.

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  7. I have heard about that and we've tried it with the bluetooth and without. It's the darnedest thing.

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  8. I miss going to AAA and getting triptychs remember them?

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  9. Yikes. That has not (yet) happened to me/us. Sunspots? Satellite outage? Mercury in retrograde?

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    1. I'm leaning towards possession at this point. Or, maybe I need to update the software. One or the other.

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  10. We had trouble with Google Maps during our road trip from Ukiah, CA to Portland, OR this summer. It kept changing the route at random points during the drive. And while it provided a nice, direct in-town route from our friend's place back to our rental, it always sent us 20 minutes out of the way when attempting the reverse. You ever drive in Portland? Not a grid in sight, and the Columbia river meandering all around. Nightmare for us directionally challenged!

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    1. While I'm sorry you are also having trouble with Google Maps; I'm glad to find I'm not alone with this issue.

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  11. I have issues with GPS often. I can't stand when it stops talking to me. Add to that the entire state changed every single exit number so some systems recognize it and others don't and I'm as good as lost. I think my favorite though is when they sent me to Rhode Island (the next state over) via a local route, NOT the highway. I think it took 2 hours longer. *sigh*

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    1. When they work they are a marvelous invention; when they don't it's infuriating.

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  12. I think they are possessed by evil spirits and I'm sticking with AAA triptychs

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    1. Drat! This is your pal, Urspo. Blogger too is bewitched.

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    2. I feel sure that the darned thing is possessed!

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  13. Yes, you are crazy. 😳

    Kidding!


    But I've never had issues like that and I use my apple map all the time on my phone. I wonder if you need an update of some sort.
    I'm glad you guys had a nice visit with your people.

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