one problem on indian roads is that even low speed accidents are caused by split second mistakes. if you are driving alone, and you take off your eye from the road for a second to look at the gps monitor, during that one second two cycles and one motorcycle will hit you from three sides.
i am not against gps, but i dont know how effective it will be on indian roads which are becoming congested by the hour.
RE:GPS in india
by Gaurav Bhagra on Jan 13, 2008 04:16 PM Permalink
valid point esp. in city/bumper 2bumber traffic. good for long runs/cross country travel though or simply for the fun of having a GPS in your car. Mommy's gonna know where u were last nite !
Last year when I was in Hamburg I was reading in local press a news item about how a ambulance carrying a critical patient kept on roaming on city roads for 100 kms purely on guidance of teh GPRS. There was a lot of debate that time on whether one should rely on GPRS. wONDER HWO RELIABLE IT IS? Is this error human or design error?
RE:GPRS
by Truest Indian on Jan 13, 2008 04:01 PM Permalink
there might be accidental anomalies here and there, as you point out, but on the average, it has been more or less successful in the western world.
but in india, where roads are never almost always never at right angles, you have roads which curve at crossings and you do have crossings where five or six roads meet, one is not sure. the gadget has to be designed with extreme precision.
Pros.. 1. GPRS is a handy tool for drivers who can use it. 2. GPRS is definitely much above just Maps/Guides or Touristic directions which one seeks and follows when travelling in unknown places. 3. GPRS provides for location presentation on a spredsheet and gives a distance and sense of direction one needs when planning travel. 4. It is handy assistance while manovering turns and taking different roads. 5. It provides help in advance when travelling and alerts if a wrong turn or direction is wrongly chosen. 5. It travels with you. 6. It minimises dependence on checking from unpersons who may know or even are ignorant and some times pass wrong information. 7. GPRS is a guide and can be updated whenever the same are available from suppliers.
Cons.. 1. It is costlier and beyond many persons budgetary reach. It requires either a car ownership or a mobile or a Viewing System. 2. In India thereare too many roads and too narrow by lanes. Putting them all on the map will make it more confusing when viewing. Only it may be helpful when driving thru vocal support. 4. It is an irritant when the speaker keeps repreating same plan and argues based on its chartered course and does not correct course if any other optional road is taken for traffic or accessability reasons which are not indicated as inputs to the basic desined plan.
RE:GPRS for India
by drmanyam pamidipati on Jan 13, 2008 12:16 PM Permalink
A wonderful instrument for those who drive for the first time in an un known area, either a city , or a town ,or a village road, i congraculate for the innovation and perticularly to those who have brought to the indian masses. thak u dr manyam
RE:GPRS for India
by Gagandeep Singh on Jan 13, 2008 04:54 PM Permalink
Hey Man!!! Gimme a break... Its not "GPRS", It is "GPS" Global Positioning System. GPRS if the abbreviation for "General Packet Radio Service" and used for internet bandwidth purpose in mobiles. Get your fundamentals right. Anyway. if I try to understand this stuff for GPS probably good for knowledge. Thanks...
RE:GPRS for India
by aggi soares on Jan 13, 2008 04:07 PM Permalink
Moron its gps and not gprs ...its not his mistake its india technology mistake .. india is lagging than other westerners.. wake up you all dirty political.
I currently use GPS in europe. The problem with India is that there will be a million roads named Mahatma Gandhi road, Ambedkar Nagar, Shivaji Road, Rajiv Gandhi Nagar and so on. GPS will go crazy
RE:Million places with same names
by Super User on Jan 13, 2008 02:53 PM Permalink
GPS does not rely on road names but global co-ordinates. So even a billion roads having the same name is not a problem, as long as the user can uniqely identify the MG Road he wants to go to.
RE:Million places with same names
by Chiragraja on Jan 12, 2008 04:00 PM Permalink
jai ho...... Confused GPS ki. Boss We dont have two Mumbai and we dont have two churchgate... we are still bater compared to US where all have hughes Road, Dunklin Road Miller Road etc
RE:Million places with same names
by Milo sevic on Jan 12, 2008 04:43 PM Permalink
One needs a GPS in Europe because when you are on Motorway or Autobahn, if you miss one exit then the next junction would be atleast 20-30 miles away......In india you dont have that problem....you can ask someone or even on the National highways except for very few you can easily make a U turn where you want or atleast at a nearest Dhaba.... I dont think there would be any problems if a town has 100 streets with identical name....after all GPS is a machine and machines are to solve that...
India is a IT hub...but we dont have any web tools to search and find the roads on places in our major cities.....
Even small countries in Europe have these facilities and tools.... we are still living in old times asking some one on the road about the roads and junctions.....
RE:Do we have road maps .....for navigation help
by Super User on Jan 13, 2008 02:59 PM Permalink
Imagine a case where you are stuck somewhere and you dont know where you are and want to find the quickest way to another place. How do you use Google maps to find your route?
GPS in your car always knows where you are (sattelite connection permitting) at any instant, so all one needs to know where he wants to get to.
RE:Do we have road maps .....for navigation help
by raj on Jan 13, 2008 02:54 PM Permalink
yeah, plan ahead with google maps. turn on the google communities, there's wikimapia too to help. community based tool like wikimapia are a boon for the not so rich people like most of us :)
RE:Do we have road maps .....for navigation help
by nitin khanna on Jan 13, 2008 03:06 PM Permalink
Don't forget mate, that India effectively started from scratch only 60 yrs back post independence. don't expect it to catch up with the world on everything.
RE:Do we have road maps .....for navigation help
by kausar khan on Jan 13, 2008 03:57 PM Permalink
Dear Sir, we are not living in old times anymore.If you have mobile set which has a GPS locator and a GPRS connectivity then you can get your location,road maps,directions very easily. You can see your cars` velocity also. Nokia N95 supports it.
