H.U.D.

[mr_cellophane]

I am working in Hatfield at present and so my commute is along the A1(M) and M25 (35 miles is too far to cycle).
My latest grips is the number of people I see at night who think their SavNav is a Heads Up Display. It must restrict their field of view and at night the light must make it difficult for their eyes to adjust to the dark road.
Has anyone heard of the police charging a driver with any offence relating to this.

 

[defy-one]

You have a point. The amount of drivers that place the sat nav unit high up near the rear view mirror or top right of the windscreen is scary. Add in that after dark they keep it in day colours

Even when i used a seperate unit,it would never be in my direct line of site and in darker colours after dark.

These drivers need educating on so many levels!

 

[I like Skol]

This is an important issue as the light to dark contrast will ruin night time vision. When I used to drive a van for a living I had a hard wired mount for my TomTom which used to auto switch to the night colours when the headlights were in use. This was a neat feature but even with the night brightness set to minimum and the dullest clour scheme selected it was still critical to position and angle the unit carefully to protect night vision when driving on unlit roads.

 

[fossyant]

It's not rocket science for these things to be able to auto dim given ambient light. Even in my 10 year old car, the built in nav changes to a black background and is fully dimmable automatically. Even new portable units should be able to turn down brightness. As for fitting in the field of view, idiotic.

 

[Drago]

I am working in Hatfield at present and so my commute is along the A1(M) and M25 (35 miles is too far to cycle).
My latest grips is the number of people I see at night who think their SavNav is a Heads Up Display. It must restrict their field of view and at night the light must make it difficult for their eyes to adjust to the dark road.
Has anyone heard of the police charging a driver with any offence relating to this.

Yes, although a quiet chat about both common sense and con & use usually do the job.

 

[Miquel In De Rain]

Yes, although a quiet chat about both common sense and con & use usually do the job.

Or a mouth full of abuse in return.

 

[Boris Bajic]

I am a keen motorist, but am also slightly alarmed by the way driver aids (?) are placed either where they obscure the screen or on the front passenger seat, where they take the eyes off the road.

I would not be happy driving with a SatNav stuck to my winscreen or sitting on the dashtop. I'm rather surprised that people do it.

I've never heard of anyone being stopped for it - and can imagine they might be slightly indignant if they were, however clear the obstruction of their vision.

On a different tack, I live slightly in fear of a world where (apart from aspiring middle-class kids who've done their D of E Gold Award) we are cultivating a society of people quite unable to navigate from A to B without entering a postcode into a GPS device.

I've also noticed that the police are getting younger and that various things I disapprove of simply would not have happened in my day....

 

[sabian92]

I get my passenger to hold it. No glare (or at least, a lot less than if it was in my face) and you can still hear the instructions.

Never not had a passenger to hold it but if I didn't I'd probably mount it really low and as dark as it could go.

 

[StuartG]

Would it not be wonderful if the US military declared a GPS-free day? If only to check whether everybody who relies on it has a backup navigation and or location workaround.

 

[fossyant]

Would it not be wonderful if the US military declared a GPS-free day? If only to check whether everybody who relies on it has a backup navigation and or location workaround.

There would be trouble. All the Strava cyclists would be up in arms.

 

[jonny jeez]

I've long thought this.

its not just the lack of night vision when having a backlit device in your line of sight, its also the MASSIVE restriction to your filed of vision. I've done a little graphic to show how absurd it is to place something like this in your line of sight.

it should be illegal to have anything obscure your field of vision when moving (it probably is, but is just not enforced). I cant believe the total stupidity of people that fit devices in this manner then drive anywhere, let alone to and from their office, a route they clearly need no instruction with.

 

[I like Skol]

I've long thought this.

its not just the lack of night vision when having a backlit device in your line of sight, its also the MASSIVE restriction to your filed of vision. I've done a little graphic to show how absurd it is to place something like this in your line of sight.

it should be illegal to have anything obscure your field of vision when moving (it probably is, but is just not enforced). I cant believe the total stupidity of people that fit devices in this manner then drive anywhere, let alone to and from their office, a route they clearly need no instruction with.

But Jonny, what your overly simplified graphic actually demonstrates is that it doesn't need numpty car users to block their view when the manufacturers are doing afairly good job of it by themselves.

Your graphic misses the fact that your vision isn't from a single point but from 2 points which narrows the effective obstruction, the device size that is causing the obstruction is exaggerated in the above image and in most cases when the device is placed at the top of the screen (where a sun visor might be) or at the very bottom of the screen it is only serving to block the view of the sky or the wiper blades.
I am blessed (or cursed with being quite tall so even the interior rear view mirror can do a good job of hiding things and when combined with the ever increasing thickness of windscreen pillars on modern cars provides a massive gap in vision which easily lose an entire vehicle, never mind pedestrians, cyclists and street 'furniture'.

However, we deviate and the original point about using bright displays at night is the main problem being discussed and even the car manufacturers dim the instrument cluster at night to try and avoid the harm to night vision that occurs.

 

[jonny jeez]

in most cases when the device is placed at the top of the screen (where a sun visor might be) or at the very bottom of the screen it is only serving to block the view of the sky or the wiper blades.
.

That's the point though Skol, these idiots aren't placing them there, they are placing them directly in their line of sight for anyone stepping off the pavement or riding to the left.

I take your point about stereoscopic vision but that is outweighed by the effect of having a backlit screen in your line of sight... at night.

Its common sense, place them at the bottom of the screen or way out of the line of sight. If it made sense to put them smack bang in the middle of the windscreen then car manufacturers wouldn't put them in the dashboard.

People are trying to use them as some form of home made HUD and forgetting that the device isn't transparent.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

...
My latest grips is the number of people I see at night who think their SavNav is a Heads Up Display. ...

Ironically this is where 'our' username came from. Having seen some many in cars either when we were driving passed them or them passed us, and only once ever seen it say anything other than straighton, we came up with "SatNavSaysStraightOn".

The biggest joke (ok it may not be funny to the rest of the world) is that we don't have satnav... we don't use GPS or digital maps and navigate solely from paper maps, even for our 22 country, 14,000km tour. Paper maps the whole way!

Still I do agree, their usage is alarming at the best of times.

Oh yeh - and I did do Bronze, Silver & Gold DofE but could map read I started.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

...I take your point about stereoscopic vision but that is outweighed by the effect of having a backlit screen in your line of sight... at night.....

Don't some of them have a night mode now? where the screen is black and the road much darker than normal but obviously lighter than "dark" so it can still be seen with night vision, so as not to degrade night vision?