I had an odd experience a few nights ago. Rather than go straight home
from work, I went to a certain branch of my bank to get some cash. This
part wasn¡¯t the problem--the route from work to the bank is very
straightforward, and I¡¯ve done it before. The plan was to go from the
bank to these destinations:
Destination A: Cafe about a mile from the bank, where I planned to get a
bite to eat.
Destination B: Bookstore 2 or 3 miles from the cafe, where I was going
to an author¡¯s appearance.
Destination C: Home, ~15 miles from the bookstore.
What made this tricky was that this was all in a neighborhood with which
I¡¯m not very familiar. I had literally never been to the cafe and the
bookstore. I printed out hard copy Bing Maps directions, and it turned
out to be good that I did.
When I tried to go from the bank to the cafe, neither navigation app I
tried (Waze and Apple Maps) was able to interpret and accept the
destination. I had to rely on the printed directions. When I tried to
set a destination for the bookstore and later for home, it was the same
story. Waze did give me occasional warnings like ¡°railroad tracks
ahead¡± and ¡°stalled vehicle ahead,¡± as it normally does.
After the reading, I had no luck entering my home address as the
destination. At this point it was too dark to read the printed
directions. I guessed, correctly, that if I followed a certain nearby
street westward, it would lead me into an arterial with which I was
familiar, and I¡¯d be able to get home with no help from the iPhone. I
put the phone in the cupholder on the console. At a couple of points I
took a quick look at it, and the navigation app did show where I was. I
assume that without knowing my destination, it couldn¡¯t use my current
location to direct me.
Why would something like this happen? Was it a fluke of the moment, or
would it be likely to happen in that neighborhood again? The
neighborhood is pretty far out of my way, and I was there only because I
was very interested in the reading. I don¡¯t really have the time to
make another trip there to test the hypothesis. FWIW, my wireless
carrier is T-Mobile. Thanks for your thoughts.
