# anyone here uses a compass?



## Urbanappalachian (Dec 11, 2016)

It's hard to tell when the GPS is telling me "head west" etc. depending which way I'm facing. I never went to boy scout. Do I get a magnetic compass for my car or something?


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## Hugo (Oct 13, 2015)

Urbanappalachian said:


> It's hard to tell when the GPS is telling me "head west" etc. depending which way I'm facing. I never went to boy scout. Do I get a magnetic compass for my car or something?


My car has a compass as part of a navigation option. It's in the middle of the dashboard's instrument cluster. I use frequently, including for what you wrote about. Works great!


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## William1964 (Jul 28, 2015)

Yes. My car has a compass on the dashboard.

I've stopped using Google Maps because I'm either in the lake or on the golf course driving through people's backyards crashing into buildings. I think their clock is off a few millionths of a second. The blue dot is always three or four blocks away from my location.

Google Maps sends me through too many alleys.

My first day with w a z e was spectacular. However is it distracted driving tool. Ooo. a piece of candy


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## Urbanappalachian (Dec 11, 2016)

Waze has been acting up since last month! Are you saying my in car dash GPS has a compass?


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## Hugo (Oct 13, 2015)

Urbanappalachian said:


> < . . . > Are you saying my in car dash GPS has a compass?


Very possible, check it out! If not, Amazon has a good selection of compasses.

On my current car and my previous one, I found the compass by using the left and right arrow keys on the steering wheel.


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## beezlewaxin (Feb 10, 2015)

I notice alot of taxi drivers have a compass stuck to their dash..


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## Mista T (Aug 16, 2017)

What's a compass? You old people and your old things. My daddy used to talk about that kind of stuff. Isn't that kind of like a typewriter, or a newspaper?


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## PMartino (Mar 18, 2016)

Mista T said:


> What's a compass? You old people and your old things. My daddy used to talk about that kind of stuff. Isn't that kind of like a typewriter, or a newspaper?


Yes, more like a paper because it does show you N-E-W-S. I'm just happy the original sextant in my dash still works.


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## Mars Troll Number 4 (Oct 30, 2015)

http://theweek.com/articles/464674/8-drivers-who-blindly-followed-gps-into-disaster

"The machine knows where it's going!" yells Michael Scott in an episode of _The Office_, before driving his car directly into a lake.

If his blind dedication to GPS rings a little too true, fear not, dear driver, you aren't alone. Next time the mechanical voice tells you to hang a right where none exists, trust your own two eyes instead of making these mistakes:

*1. Turning into the park*
In early May, a driver on the Upper West Side of Manhattan was trying to make his way to New Jersey. But somewhere around 88th Street, the GPS he was following led him astray. The driver turned west, but instead of turning onto a street, his sedan headed down the first few stairs of an entrance to Riverside Park. The car - and the driver - were stuck on the stairs until a tow truck could erase the evidence of a very public wrong turn.

*2. Driving into the bay*
Three Japanese tourists in Australia used their GPS to plan a drive to North Stradbroke Island, just off the coast of the eastern city of Brisbane. But what the machine didn't account for was the _nine miles_ of water dividing the island from the mainland. The road turned to gravel, then to thick mud, then to gentle laps of water against the tires. The three were forced to abandon the vehicle and return on foot. Passengers aboard a passing ferry - the _recommended_ way to get to the island - reportedly watched the whole embarrassing event unfold. A tow truck gave the poor tourists a ride back, and the car, not being worth the repair, was sent to the dump.

*3. Continuing on and on and on*
All Sabine Moreau wanted to do was pick up a friend from the train station, which was north of her home in Hainault Erquelinees, Brussels. But when the GPS directions took her south instead of north, the 67-year-old woman didn't question it. She stuck by her GPS when she saw the signs for the _German_ towns of Frankfurt, Aachen, and Cologne. And when the lengthy trip forced her to refuel twice, and pull over to catch a few hours of shut-eye - Moreau didn't question the machine even then. Only when she entered the Croatian capital of Zagreb did she finally realize something was up. Her friend at the train station and her son had also caught on, and her son called the police. When Moreau finally returned home, all she said by way of explanation was, "I admit it's a little weird, but I was distracted."

*4. Riding up to a cliff's edge*
In 2009, Robert Jones' reliance on his satellite navigation system nearly got the best of him when he was driving in West Yorkshire, England. The "road" began to steepen and narrow, but still he plugged on. "It kept insisting the path was a road," he later explained, "so I just trusted it." Jones only realized how wrong he was when his car bumped up against a thin wire fence just inches from a 100-foot drop. He managed to get out safely, but the car remained balanced on the edge. It took a recovery team nine hours to haul the car away, and Jones was given a court citation for driving without care and attention.

*5. Making a U-turn into a lake*
In 2011, three women visiting Bellevue, Wash., were out after midnight, unable to find their way back to their hotel. After asking the GPS to re-route, they took what they thought was a road that would lead them to the highway. Instead, their SUV ended up sinking into deep water. The "road" turned out to be a boat launch, and the water a lake. All three managed to get out safely, but by the time the tow truck arrived, the SUV was completely submerged. "We've seen sitcom parodies of something like this and to actually see it is surprising," said a local fireman.

*6. Running straight into a house*
Early one foggy Saturday morning in 2011, a father was driving his wife and two kids through South Brunswick, N.J. At a T intersection, where the only options were left and right, this driver opted instead to follow his GPS guidance and go straight. He missed the initial stop sign, ran over the lip of the curb, and continued for another 100 feet before hitting a house. Unfortunately, two passengers who were not wearing seat belts were hurt and taken to the hospital. "This stuff really happens," a police spokesman remarked.http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/GPS-Leads-NJ-Motorist-into-House-122401209.html

*7. Getting stuck in a cherry tree*
In 2007, a 37-year-old German truck driver had his GPS guide him to a Swiss factory where he was to deliver his cargo. But instead of heeding the "no-entry" warning signs that should have deterred him, the driver followed the sound of the female voice until the truck ended up wedged in the cradle of a cherry tree. The truck was stuck fast, and the driver couldn't reverse. Local officials eventually had to chop down branches of the tree to get the truck out.

*8. Veering into a sand pit*
GPS often can't account for changes, like construction. But that's why drivers have eyes and, ideally, wits. Unfortunately, one or the other was missing from a German couple driving around Hamburg one night in 2006. The 80-year-old driver was so dedicated to his navigation's know-how that he ignored a highway's initial "closed for construction" sign, as well as several successive barricades, until he plowed right into a sand pit. Luckily, the motorists escaped uninjured, though their egos were likely bruised.

*Sources: *ABC News, _CNET_, _Daily Mail_, _El Mundo_, _KVAL.com_, NBC, _News.com.au_, _Softpedia.com_, _West Side Rag_


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## Rakos (Sep 2, 2014)

My rear view mirror in my SUV...

Has built one built into it....

I am great at directions...

Butt...on more than one occasion...

I have had to look at it...

To see which way was up...

GPS has tried to send me...

The wrong way on a one way street...

Thank godness for my city knowledge...

Sonetimes just have to ignore it...

Monkeys never get lost...do they...?

Rakos


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## Trafficat (Dec 19, 2016)

I was going to pick up a passenger and my GPS led me down a dirt road, which I followed, only for it to terminate in a house, though the GPS indicated I could keep driving through the house and out the other side. My 3 min ETA pickup became 15 minutes because the shortcut did not really exist.


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## beezlewaxin (Feb 10, 2015)

Everyone keeps mentioning GPS, but imo GPS apps render a compass useless because the map rotates as you drive.

I found a compass to be most useful while still in the Lyft/Uber app immediately after getting a ping or starting a trip. If you're already in your GPS app then a compass is useless except for things like "head west". I tend to just "follow the line" a lot and a compass helps to get started in the right direction.

Also I change my gps apps so that north is always up. Takes some getting used to but has no benefit the other way other than being able to mindlessly follow the rotating map view.


----


If you don't already instantly know which way is North how do you decide which direction to start driving when you begin a pickup or a trip?


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## Rakos (Sep 2, 2014)

beezlewaxin said:


> Everyone keeps mentioning GPS, but imo GPS apps render a compass useless because the map rotates as you drive.
> 
> I found a compass to be most useful while still in the Lyft/Uber app immediately after getting a ping or starting a trip. If you're already in your GPS app then a compass is useless except for things like "head west". I tend to just "follow the line" a lot and a compass helps to get started in the right direction.
> 
> ...


Ok...I got this....

You look for the moss on the trees...

Everyone knows....

That moss only grows....

On the north side of the trees...8>)

Rakos

PS. I was a good monkey boy scout....


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## Hugo (Oct 13, 2015)

beezlewaxin said:


> < . . . >
> If you don't already instantly know which way is North how do you decide which direction to start driving when you begin a pickup or a trip?


I look at the compass.


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## Iann (Oct 17, 2017)

beezlewaxin said:


> Everyone keeps mentioning GPS, but imo GPS apps render a compass useless because the map rotates as you drive.
> 
> I found a compass to be most useful while still in the Lyft/Uber app immediately after getting a ping or starting a trip. If you're already in your GPS app then a compass is useless except for things like "head west". I tend to just "follow the line" a lot and a compass helps to get started in the right direction.
> 
> ...


 You can lock the map to keep North to the top. That way North will be to the top of the phone. 
Your car will rotate on the map compared to the map rotating.


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