Trust gps or no?

[thhMan]

Locals are thick as bricks and I have found them useless at directions... Been sent in circles many times!

GPS is hopeless as many Thais will "mark" a landmark, from their homes, so you end up looking for a museum (only an example) and end up in some backwater soi. Also expect to end up in the carpark at the rear of buildings... Thats happened to me a few times...

Its gotten so bad that I always check the images etc to make sure.... many times I have had to navigate from the info supplied by trip advisor which is near on useless as well.

Try and get co-ordinates .... Most times I have asked the people at the destination, they have no idea what to do....

[bkk_mike]

I generally only use the GPS when I know I'll be in unfamiliar territory.

It's always good when trying to work out where you are, but the directions can be iffy. One time it sent me to a wooden bridge that may have been safe, but there was no way I was driving over it in a fortuner.

[casualbiker]

Locals word sure. Google maps for Thailand is at best 2 years out of date. At worst it's just wrong. I wouldn't trust any other service either.

A few years ago I made a bicycle trip from Phattalung to Hat Yai, visiting the Talay Noi for music fest. Google maps assured me the only way to get from Talay Noi to my shore hugging route was to go North and around the lake. 150 or so km, a good 2 days bicycling for me.

When I arrived at Talay Noi, I say a sign pointing to the town I was headed for 30km. Headed that way and found a lovely bridge stretching across the narrowest part of the lake

Check Google maps again and found that the bridge was not included in the routing. Although you could see it plainly in the satellite photos, their map showed the drivable road ending at either end and not going across.

I contacted GM about it and got referred to the service that provides their data for Thailand. They told me that they know the bridge is there, but that Google refuses to use any data fresher than 2 years.

So listen to your brother in law.

Really!! I have found in the last few months it's excellent!

[richard_smith237]

Sat Nav is generally good, as is listening to intelligent advices.

They key is filtering out which is more useful and never rely on solely on a singular piece of information.

Example: Going in the wrong direct to get on an express way to travel to the opposite side of town (Bkk). It make not make geographical sense, but it makes a world of sense with regards to time. A taxi driver, however, may not agree and will take some convincing....

There are numerous routes and numerous idiosyncrasies involved when choosing an optimum route... I don't lie to waste my time in unnecessary traffic and often consider 5 mins to check out a location or journey worth it. That said... spending hours researching a journey to save 15 mins seems a little counter intuitive...

[Greg Nixon]

Ask them of the names of towns and villages they pass through and the trace their route on a map. I alway have a couple of highway maps of Thailand in my car. M wife told me some names of towns she passed through. It was a shorter route than the main highway I would have taken being a stranger in this part of the world.

[henry15]

Google maps is only good to see your location, thats all. When I drive from Hua Hin to my home an follow Google maps its about 50K longer. And this is always so ifor any direction even in Bangkok center.

Google Maps GPS is completely useless in my opinion.

[BadBouy]

I have a built in GPS (Speed Navi) in my Triton. It is the best gps I’ve ever used; even in Bangkok it has

always got me there no problem.

However when the wife is driving, she always thinks she knows a better route, and, ends up shouting

at the lady in the sat nav calling her stupid.

Have a Nice Day.

In the area I have lived in for most of my life, I will turn on my GPS set up with a woman's voice, rather than shouting like your wife does, I

practice ignoring the woman's voice. The practice has served me well!

And a good day to you as well

[richard_smith237]

Google maps is only good to see your location, thats all. When I drive from Hua Hin to my home an follow Google maps its about 50K longer. And this is always so ifor any direction even in Bangkok center.

Google Maps GPS is completely useless in my opinion.

Google Maps (version 8.3.1) for Smart Phones (in my case Samsung S5) works very well.

My location is always very accurate in and outside of town, traffic also shows up fairly well.

Its now appears to be an equal match for the Sat Nav in my car.

[casualbiker]

I was on 8.20 just updated. Moto G running 4.4.4

[cocopops]

Take your brothers'-in-law advice.

Be sure to emphasize you are definitely traveling their advised route. Leave earlier than planned ... as backup.

Your doing this is priceless as it will enhance family bonds and camaraderie. Even if time is lost.

Exactly. It is a grave insult to a man in any country to imply that he doesn't know the best route to take to any reasonably local destination you can name. Certainly I would feel obliged to take it as such. It's an international bloke thing.

[WarpSpeed]

Locals word sure. Google maps for Thailand is at best 2 years out of date. At worst it's just wrong. I wouldn't trust any other service either.

A few years ago I made a bicycle trip from Phattalung to Hat Yai, visiting the Talay Noi for music fest. Google maps assured me the only way to get from Talay Noi to my shore hugging route was to go North and around the lake. 150 or so km, a good 2 days bicycling for me.

When I arrived at Talay Noi, I say a sign pointing to the town I was headed for 30km. Headed that way and found a lovely bridge stretching across the narrowest part of the lake

Check Google maps again and found that the bridge was not included in the routing. Although you could see it plainly in the satellite photos, their map showed the drivable road ending at either end and not going across.

I contacted GM about it and got referred to the service that provides their data for Thailand. They told me that they know the bridge is there, but that Google refuses to use any data fresher than 2 years.

So listen to your brother in law.

2 years out of date? What nonsense, the roads in Thailand don't change nearly as often as the rest of the civilized world there's no need to remap that often and besides it's only been about 2 years since Google maps even mapped the roads in Thailand, I can go to it right now and find almost anything I'm familiar with and find it quite accurate our street in Bangkok was mapped just after the floods, you can still see the flood marks on many of the buildings etc. Checking most Google maps here and there are very few that have been mapped sooner then 2 to 3 years ago.

[TrueOrNothing]

I downloaded the whole Thailand maps from Google Maps on my phone and use GPS offline with OruxMaps only to show my actual location. Only 2 times I was stuck on a dead end, like the day I was following a path for cows in the mangrove, becoming underwater before the embankment of the railway line

[bkkjames]

Locals word sure. Google maps for Thailand is at best 2 years out of date. At worst it's just wrong. I wouldn't trust any other service either.

A few years ago I made a bicycle trip from Phattalung to Hat Yai, visiting the Talay Noi for music fest. Google maps assured me the only way to get from Talay Noi to my shore hugging route was to go North and around the lake. 150 or so km, a good 2 days bicycling for me.

When I arrived at Talay Noi, I say a sign pointing to the town I was headed for 30km. Headed that way and found a lovely bridge stretching across the narrowest part of the lake

Check Google maps again and found that the bridge was not included in the routing. Although you could see it plainly in the satellite photos, their map showed the drivable road ending at either end and not going across.

I contacted GM about it and got referred to the service that provides their data for Thailand. They told me that they know the bridge is there, but that Google refuses to use any data fresher than 2 years.

So listen to your brother in law.

2 years out of date? What nonsense, the roads in Thailand don't change nearly as often as the rest of the civilized world there's no need to remap that often and besides it's only been about 2 years since Google maps even mapped the roads in Thailand, I can go to it right now and find almost anything I'm familiar with and find it quite accurate our street in Bangkok was mapped just after the floods, you can still see the flood marks on many of the buildings etc. Checking most Google maps here and there are very few that have been mapped sooner then 2 to 3 years ago.

The map is good ...however people who place their establishments on the map can certainly improve

Sent from my LG-P970 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[chrissables]

You should post both a copy of the 'locals' route and a copy of the Google Map route in order to receive objective feedback.

Or buy a map and plan your own route, good fun too. What i have seen here is that they go the way they know, rather than the shortest / scenic route. Plan a route that may be interesting and see how it goes

[ClutchClark]

I've drove to and around Kanchanaburi using Google and it didn't always give good dirction.

Yes I concur I don't bother with that junk I look at the sun for directions.

Reminds me of my young Oz friend on a ride out using google maps and gps looking for Kawasaki dealer in CM and we came across this arch 3 times and he said it has to be here somewhere, and I said well the bloody arch is unless there's 3 of em in CM.

My car GPS sucks most times, Google not so much and neither tell a lot about conditions on the ground like schools and pick up traffic etc. so one has to take all things into consideration sometimes the locals know better. I had an expat come to buy one of my cars a few years ago and upon leaving at the time of day he left and where he was heading I gave him cautions about going certain directions due to traffic and such and he followed his GPS instead and an 1.5 hour drive ended up taking him well over 3 hours so better had he listened to me..

Just last night we went across to the Kennedy space center with my boys to see a rocket lift off, I had mapped out the route on Google but midstream I hooked up my GPS to make sure and the piece of crap had me turn around and I believed it and it took us way out of our way, drive about 5 miles back and take another route, take expensive toll roads (I had mapped out to avoid) and we ended up being late . It cost us more time, more gas and more cost in tolls, and it should have just corrected itself to continue on the route I was traveling instead turning us around as that did go to our destination as I found out on the way back when I took it, it was more direct too. Fortunately there were thunderstorms in the area of the launch so it was delayed and we ended up seeing it albeit from further away then we had planned but still the GPS sucked, it's mostly good for finding local stopping points like finding fuel or restaurants etc. but only for directions in desperation in maybe finding your way out if your lost or something.

Technically speaking, the GPS satellite tracking works quite well. What you describe is a problem with the GIS support.

[tifino]

we were headed down the AH2 freeway, getting closer to goal - Samut Songkhram.

Driver and wife were busy in their nonstop chat since leaving SiRacha.

My trusty nokia C5 shows me we are almost there - but do you think I could shake them both to listen to me with the GPS?...

"you farang don't know anything" - and that was the missus speaking...

so 'they kept going stoneyfaced, till we reached the T Junction for AH2 [35] and the [4] road for Ratchaburi.

Still not absorbing that I was already correct, I then tried to suit them by shutting up...

Taxi driver is confused.

Missus angry - at me!

I then took the reins and suggested they either turn around or drive to Ratchaburi, and turn up the 3093 - all the while not looking up from my C5.

I still laugh (silently) when again & again ' 'you farang always dumb not know anything'.

[Jinjo14]

Take your brothers'-in-law advice.

Be sure to emphasize you are definitely traveling their advised route. Leave earlier than planned ... as backup.

Your doing this is priceless as it will enhance family bonds and camaraderie. Even if time is lost.

Do both.. look at the map he gave you. Then look at Google maps and overlay the maps using waypoints (section it out)

Job done then.. also the newest versions of Google maps now have traffic info and alternate routes.

This is what I'm gonna do. Apparently a road is being fixed but google maps do not show it. Better drive a 100km more but no congestion

[WarpSpeed]

we were headed down the AH2 freeway, getting closer to goal - Samut Songkhram.

Driver and wife were busy in their nonstop chat since leaving SiRacha.

My trusty nokia C5 shows me we are almost there - but do you think I could shake them both to listen to me with the GPS?...

"you farang don't know anything" - and that was the missus speaking...

so 'they kept going stoneyfaced, till we reached the T Junction for AH2 [35] and the [4] road for Ratchaburi.

Still not absorbing that I was already correct, I then tried to suit them by shutting up...

Taxi driver is confused.

Missus angry - at me!

I then took the reins and suggested they either turn around or drive to Ratchaburi, and turn up the 3093 - all the while not looking up from my C5.

I still laugh (silently) when again & again ' 'you farang always dumb not know anything'.

Wife sounds very loving and respectful, take your package out of the freezer my friend..

Edited September 19, 2014 by WarpSpeed