Did anyone encounter "incorrect" directions from their GPS?

dawillie- I've had the exact same thing happen to me! The city I live in is a grid pattern for the most part, so you can usually get anywhere with only having to make a few turns, which is nice. However, there's this one route I take frequently where I literally have to turn right out of my neighborhood, follow that street for about 3 miles, then turn right for a few miles, and I'm there. However, my GPS wants me to take a bajillion turns right, then left, then right, then left, blah blah blah. What's funny is that if finally figures out the route I am going to take (after trying to get me to make a u-turn at one spot to "get me back on track"). What's the kicker is that just like yours, once it figures out the route I am taking it reduces my estimated arrival time by about 3 or 4 minutes! I have it set for fastest time, but I guess it can't always get it right.

One other thing that frustrates me is that my GPS doesn't seem to account for or expect me to get stopped at 1 single light or be behind any traffic at all because even if I catch just 1 light, it will start to increase my arrival time. The only time it doesn't add time to my estimated arrival time is when I'm doing mostly freeway driving (because there are no lights) or when I just happen to be driving a route where I can happen to miss every single light. Why can programs like Google Maps or Mapquest get the expected travels times correct to the minute (and they even have estimates for when there's traffic), but a GPS unit can't?

Mike and I were driving through an area of Texas we were not familiar with. Not knowing where to stop for lunch, we turned to the Garmin (loaded with the most recent maps). It showed a Pecan Inn only about a mile down the road. We said "Go" and it took us into a neighborhood and said "you have arrived" near some residential homes. The address wasn't posted on one of the homes (that happened to us one time and it was the restaurant owner's home address). Guess I should report it to Navteq.

I zoom into where I live (100 % residential), there are all kinds of business. Try it around where you live.

The maps in my Nuvi have quite a few errors. In one case, the map assumes that the numbers on a 5-mile long stretch of road begin at the north end, and increase as you go south. In fact, it is just the other way. So it will route me 5 miles out of my way, and announce that I have arrived at the destination when there is nothing on either side of the road except cow pastures. The sad part is that I have done this twice, not realizing until too late that it was "deja vu all over again".

That is the strange Garmin POI database. Curiously, tech support has told me that they charge companies for some of the built-in POI listings. Yet many of the millions of POIs built into the nuvi are apparently harvested from rather unreliable data sources. I have plenty of similar non-existent stores show up in my all residential neighborhood, including a fictional Apple computer store.

These I just ignore, although it would certainly be frustrating if you followed the GPS to a destination that doesn't exist. Fortunately the built-in POIs are so poor that not many people trust them anyway. More serious is when the GPS says to turn right and shows a left turn on the screen, or when it shows a road that it wants you to take where there is none.

Looks like it was doing its job correctly. It's not an AI, you know...

I had a similar issue, where my GPS took me through the streets of Gary, Indiana. Same problem as you. I had no Tolls tagged and there was about a 2 mile stretch that was a toll road. The result was it took me through Gary.
Have you looked at a map, like Google Map and checked to see how you could get there, if you did not want a toll road? The GPS just might have been right.

Hi Hobby,
I have the 350 and I also encountered a similar problem driving back to Niagara Falls, ON from the southend of Buffalo NY. It gave me a route going to Cleveland with no estimated time of arrival (four dashes were displayed) when all I wanted to do was a route to the Rainbow bridge (I had entered it as a POI). It also took me south instead of north, into an area that I was unfamilar (I was driving in the middle of the night on a weekend - not a good situation to be in). I turn the 350 on and off several times and it gave me a same incorrect route every time after it took a long time calculating the route - several minutes. I had the lastest firmware updated from Garmin's updater and bought the latest NA 2010 map updates loaded into the 350, so I know it was not the firmware or out dated maps as the problem. Since I live in a city with toll roads, I may have checked off avoid toll roads some years ago to stay away from them. I wanted to do a reset on the 350 but it did not have hard reset button so I got into the 'Settings' mode and press 'Restore' near the bottom of the screen to restore the settings back to the default value. That may have unchecked my avoid Toll routes selection and the 350 calculated the correct route after that. Yeah, the next time I travel I will take paper maps just it case...oh btw, I found out that you can do a hard reset by holding your finger on the 'time' display in the upper right hand corner of the main menu page for 5 secs and you get a diagnostic page. After that getting to that diagnostic page, turn the 350 off and then back on and that will reset it. It will not delete any of previous entered favourite sites or POI; however, it will take a longer time for it to synch up with the satellites (it's starting from scratch) - I found this on this site but not written in the 350 manual.

I was traveling from Calif to Arizona on I-10 this last weekend. It was 9:30 at night and I was about 85 miles from the Arizona border. My Nuvi 1690 set off an alert and said there was severe traffic 3 miles ahead and wanted me to divert off the Interstate to an area that would take me over 100 miles out of my way. There was hardly any traffic that night. I decideded to keep going. In 3 miles there was a small section of road that went from 2 lanes to one land for about 1/4 mile. The speed limit went from 70 to 55 and after that it opened up again. Good thing I did not get off the highway. Sometimes you just have to use common sense and not always listen to the GPS.

That's just about the worst place you could have picked to have "avoid toll roads" turned on. Lots of stories about where the Nuvi will take you from Buffalo as there are not many ways into Canada without going over a "toll" bridge for hundred's of miles in any direction.

There should be something other than fastest and shortest routes. Fastest route always takes me on the highway even if there is traffic and an easy alternate route (i.e., service road) and once had me going the wrong way on the I-95 only to tell me to get off the highway and to get back on going in the opposite direction. Shortest route takes me on strange roads that are not always the shortest route.

I have a 360 and it sometimes leads me off a main highway to go through a small town and back on the same highway. Crazy.

wow, sounds like an ordeal... if I was from out of town, I'll be sure to bring a map of the local area.

Boy are you lucky to be alive

On a recent road trip, we took smaller highways to avoid construction on the interstate.

Passing through a town in Indiana, Nuvi said to go straight through an intersection, but the posted state route sign said to turn right. Of course, we turned right. Nuvi recalculates and now shows us on the wrong highway. Finally pulled over after 10 minutes or so and studied a paper map. Nuvi was right, and the posted state route signs indicating the turn were wrong! I've never seen THAT before. Go Nuvi!

As for getting into Canada toll free, you have to go to upstate New York (way upstate) to the land crossings into Quebec. I don't believe there are any toll free ways to drive into Ontario directly from the United States until you get to Minnesota. From New York to Quebec there are many. One that I would like to see sometime in person is the one on NY-276 at Rouses Point as shown here: http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=45.009735,-73.400323&spn=... The obelisk on the left behind the maroon car is the international boundary marker. In this other view at http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=45.009841,-73.399487&spn=... , a little further down the road, there is another obelisk and the white curb is the border line.

It's only $4 to cross the Ambassador Bridge for pete's sake... WTH?

Yea, I'll spend $30 in gas, and 2 hours to avoid a cheap toll.

Same thing happened to me one time. The way I wanted to go would take me over a toll bridge but the gps wanted to take me around lake Superior. About a three day trip. I couldn't figure out why it would do that until a friend told me to remove the check mark on toll roads in Avoidance. Live and learn.

Good idea to go back every so often and check what avoidances you have set.

I was on the Indiana toll road and going to interstate 65 south twords Indianapolis.
The nuvi had me get off take about a 2 mile trip on a couple side roads but led me right to interstae 65.
I had not been up there in along time but I think I could have stayed on the toll rad and got there too.
I had tolls unchecked in avoidences also.
It also rerouted me through several side streets north of Chicago led me from one interstate to another but got me to where I was going up in the dells in record time.
The 1490t performed flawlessy the whole trip and I got to see the red light poi file work sevaral times.

One of the tings that I do when driving in new territory is when I enter the destination and it calculates a route, I check the route with both the text directions and the overall map to see where it's routing me. My wife doesn't check when she uses it and foloows it religiously and she ends up with some funky routings sometimes. There's been some instances when I've caught it routing me around a block to avoid left turns or some out of the way maneuver like that.

obviously. fortunately its usually correctable.

I had it route me to my home, I followed the directions and as soon as I took a right off the free way, it went in recalcualting mode and had me do a u turn.

Fortunately my 250w has been real good ,I have doubted it sometimes but it always seems to get me there.

Heh, can't wait for the coming of the day of the sentient machines!

I would estimate a >95+% accuracy for choosing the correct route to the desired destination. At least once, the destination point (a hotel) was not at the location stored in the Nuvi thought; more frequently, the route is off apparently due to road changes. Knowledge of current local construction is also helpful in manually overriding the Nuvi route choice.

For locations with which you am totally unfamiliar, checking online mapping sources prior to the trip is advisable. This is one of the pluses of the cellular navigation solutions (such as the Google Android based solutions).

How far can some people stupidity go. Today in the news: "Rosenberg, a Los Angeles California native, is suing Google because Google Maps issued directions that told her to walk down a rural highway."

Se more at http://www.pcworld.com/article/197618/woman_sues_google_for_...

I took my Nuvi to Newport, Rhode Island this weekend and it wound up taking me way north (it was set at fastest route) adding another 40 minutes to my trip. Another car that I was traveling with used a map and took up 95 to Rte 1 to 138 and got there way sooner. I spoke to a representative at the Hyatt and she said that other guests had said that they had problems with the GPS directions. Has anyone else encountered this problem.

I have had occassions where a GPS sent me on a route that didn't seem to make sense. I've also seen where it had problems with a specific location, for example, where my home was located. Since I didn't know how the GPS was determining the route it is hard to know why. In the case of my home I think it was probably something in the map data, but I don't know that for certain and it was eventually resolved somehow. There might also be things like traffic that gets considered in the routing process, or how you've set your route preferences. Based on what the Hyatt said maybe there is something about their location. At times I've ignored routes (or parts of routes) presented by the GPS because I questioned it, and other times followed it without question. Both strategies have never worked 100%. Bottom line, there is still a fair amount of my own intuition going into my route despite what the GPS says. Given all the variables, unless it really is just something funky about the hotel location, the other car might have been delayed for some incident on the road and your GPS would have looked brilliant for getting you around it.

There is a hard reset button on the back of the Nuvi 350. To access the button you must raise the antenna. At the very top (right under the antenna) is a small button. Push that and it will do a reset for you.

Well, I'm going to try my old Nuvi 350 for going to Niagara Falls from MD shortly. I will also take my new Nuvi 1350 to compare the recommended results. The Nuvi 1350 has new maps &, presumeably, algorithms. The 350 is at least 3 years old with old maps but software updates.

Besides, you can never be without a paper map & a sense of direction on the large scale.

Hope you sent Garmin a loving commentary about your mishap.

Fred

I was on route 104 about 40 minutes East of Rochester, NY answering a cell call when a car pulled up behind me and wanted to know how to get to Toronto. They felt that the route there Tom Tom was taking them was wrong. It took them East to route 81, then North to route 12 and across upper NY on the south side of the St Lawrence river. It crossed at Rouses Point and the the 401 in Canada down to Toronto. I looked at the GPS and it was checked for "avoid tolls". I told them to recalculate for tolls and pay the $4-$5 for the NYS 90 toll.

Its hilarious what people will do to avoid tolls.

Do you think they knew they had it set to avoid tolls? I periodically check the settings, especially if I question what it is doing.

I have wondered about how the preferences work. Does it really try to avoid tolls, in this case, at all cost? Is there some logic that says avoid tolls, or highways, or U-turns if there is another option, but don't take me hundreds of miles out of the way just to do that?

my has been so far so good, but this news is troublesome.

Might have missed it in an earlier post, but what news is troublesome?

Most of my traveling is done on familiar roads, at least until I get near the destination. I frequently will use Microsoft Streets and Trips to estimate the distance and travel time before starting on a trip, which also lets me second-guess the routing and see the way I would prefer to go, given my knowledge of the roads. I then can preview the route my GPS has calculated. If it doesn't agree with my choice, I can often fix the problem by inserting a waypoint to force it to go the way I want.

It would be nice if the "shortest route / quickest route" routines were more intelligent. The GPS always wants me to drive an extra 15 miles on interstates to save about 5 minutes. I prefer an alternate route through some beautiful country, on secondary roads. Yes, it's 5 more minutes, but I bet my blood pressure is at least 5 points lower when I reach the destination.

Clint, A paper map and a quick look over is much faster than a simulation!
Just my two cents worth, since I never leave home without a atlas tucked in the pocket behind the driver seat.

Note:
A GPSr's favorite way to commit suicide is by hanging till dead from it's mount.

I have found my Garmin to give very reliable directions to an address or attraction. However, several times it indicates the desired location is on the opposite side of the road from the actual entrance. My advice is to be vigilant for signs when nearing your destination.

In my travels I have had more than one fight with my Nav system, but one of my peeves is that when I encounter a toll road that has a electronic account reader lane vs. a cash toll lane my unit always directs me toward the EAR lane no matter what state I'm in. This is really frustrating if you are on a road that directs cash paying customers off the main road and keeps the EAR users on the main road. As I approach the toll area the unit says "keep to the left in 1 mile" all the way down to 500' mark. It is treating the toll paying area as an exit or interchange and directs you away from it. If you are not an account holder for that particular system you could get in trouble in a big hurry! Another issue I have is not just with a GPS unit but with the whole GPS system (whatever that is) because I just recently moved and when I enter my address (either INTERNET or GPS) it comes up on the wrong end of the street! My street has about 20 houses on it in a typical neighborhood and locating my address show me to be at the north end of this street when I'm actually at the south end. Anyone know who to report these errors to?

Report map errors to http://www.navteq.com/

They knew they had it checked because they avoid the pay toll in Canada. I think its the 405?

I never had any problem with my Garmin 765T directions. It is always giving me the right one.

I've always had accurate directions from my Garmin 1450. Yes sometimes it tells me to turn a little ahead of or behind the actual location......but hell.......it gets me to the point where I can see the place I want to end up at. So I consider that, Mission Accomplished....!

Mine did once ,it kept wanting me to turn left and I needed to go straight thru for another 10km.

all garmin I owned tells you make turn when you are on the bridge very odd

Had same type issue in San Francisco, and it involved the "Avoid Tolls" too.
I encountered it again north of Chicago, and realized the symptoms... Once you realize what the settings are capable of, You'll learn what to change... You're learning the subtleties of the software....
Been There --- Done That!! !

My 260 has done me wrong a couple times but nothing like the OP described, after doing a 12,600 mile trip I trust my unit to get me there, may not be the most efficient or the quickest way but it will get you to your destination.

I read the OP and the first thing that should have flashed in everyone’s mind is Airport the behavior he described is not what I have come to expect from my Nuvi while driving from my home in Tampa to Fairbanks Alaska, whenever you fly from your home to Bangladesh you have to let your GPSR connect to the SATS visible at that location in Bangladesh and wait almost as long as when the unit was new and turned on for the first time, those are not the same SATS your unit was looking and communicating with before leaving your home town, IMO what fixed the problem was not the settings he changed in the unit but the info and almanac the unit received while he was adjusting the settings.

Remember this also applies if you have the GPSR in the desk drawer for three months, when the unit is off or moved great distances in the off position it needs to load a bunch of information, more than day to day stuff.

Bottom line, it's a tool. Like any tool we need to learn how to use it. In the process mistakes are made. It's not perfect, we're not perfect, life isn't perfect. We learn to live with imperfection in all areas of our life or we go nuts looking for the perfection we will never find. So, chill out and enjoy the adventure when your GPSr takes you someplace you would never have visited on purpose.

The Nuvi 750 was really bad giving me bad directions
So I called Garmin and they told me it was the hard drive in the unit

I've often see the nuvi route me a longer and slower way than I actually want to go. In the past month I used it on a trip where while returning home it several times wanted to route me pretty far off course and then double back, each time that I took my desired course it would do the "recalculating" thing and then give a shorted estimate and a better time of arrival. I imagine that it must also have this failing in areas that I have less knowledge of, one just wants to believe that they are being taken on a good route when they don't know any better.

On the same trip, at one point it just got completely confused, and started trying to get me to turn to the right to get back on track. I was on the same major road that I had taken on the way down and that I wanted to be on, so I knew better than to follow the instructions. It got worse and worse, the display soon showed me off-road in the middle of farmland and still recalculating and trying to get me to turn to the right. Nothing less than a full power down and reboot would shut it up, but when I did that it locked right in to where I was and was happy again. Strange thing is there is a report of something similar happening to someone in Indiana at about the same time on the same day, yet a TomTom that we also had with us on the trip never lost it's tracking of the road.