2013 Ford Focus ST Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.com

2013 Ford Focus ST Long-Term Road Test

Our 2013 Ford Focus ST's navigation system tried to steer us into trouble with the local police.

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quadricycle

That's not good. I can think of plenty of people who would just have plopped themselves into the far lane once their navigation told them to do it. Out of curiosity, does anyone know how much a ticket like that would set you back?

zimtheinvader

does the Nav have settings for avoiding toll roads? Most I've seen have that as an option.

stuntman_mike

You mean the toll lanes on the I-10 that only just opened at the end of February? How often do you expect them to update their maps? Even the best GPS still systems still require a level of attentiveness.

cjasis

I'm usually not coming to the defenese of nav systems but the user still bears some responsibility for paying attention.

Moreover, every state has its own peculiarities vis a vis toll roads, etc. Hell, CA even has differences within the state (carpool lanes which exist only during certain hours in N. CA vs. permanent carpool lanes in S. CA). I don't think it's reasonable to assume that a manufacturer can accomodate all of those nuances in their programming.

bc1960

I've had Garmins tell me to get in the HOV lane when I was alone, and to take MD 200, which is EZ-Pass only (or billed with a 50% surcharge through license plate recognition). Once it told me to exit from I-79, drive straight through the traffic light, and back down the entrance ramp to I-79--that was probably because I had it set to "shortest distance" and it bypassed a bend in I-79 by going a straighter but slower and less convenient route. The intelligence of the algorithms and the information they take into account is limited, although varying from system to system. Unless I know I want to take a toll road, if I use nav I now use the "no tolls" setting. There aren't any ferries were I live so I ignored the "no ferries" setting and that bit me when I was on vacation last year driving blue highways from upstate NY to NH--oops, the road ends at the shore of Lake Champlain.

stovt001_

Oh wonderful, if left lane cruisers weren't already a problem, now nav systems are instructing drivers to do that? When will the madness end?

benjo3686

Google Maps on my android will do this every now and again. Around the beltway in DC it would jump to the road that was either an under or overpass as I went by. A minor annoyance, but no program/system is going to be flawless.

agentorange

Too many folk take satnavs as gospel. There was a case in England where the driver of an 18-wheeler set his for "shortest route" and ended up stuck on some 6.5 foot wide green lane with hairpins. Whatever happened to "plan ahead"?