# I have a question about GPS units.



## Ruth n Jersey (Oct 2, 2018)

Recently I've been selling items on Facebook for a friend who recently went into a nursing home. What I have discovered is that many people can't find our home when they put it into their GPS on their smart phone. What makes it more difficult is that there are three streets in nearby towns with the same name. One actually has the same number.

Even when they type in the right town it sends them to another town. When they do find ours the number is always wrong. 

They all can't be doing it wrong and they all have different phones. 

I just wonder how this all works and is there someone I can call an explain the situation? It takes me forever to get them on the right track and sometimes several phone calls.

Not an earth shattering situation but I'm curious of how it all works.


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## Mike (Oct 3, 2018)

I am not sure Ruth about GPS, but I think that it works
by the exact point of latitude and longitude on a real
map.

Since a lot of people are getting it wrong, perhaps they
should just put the name of your town/city into their
navigator, when they arrive they should then call you
or then put the address in.

Another way might to pin-point your address in "Google
Earth" and get the co-ordinate numbers from the map,
I think that they show in the bottom right hand corner of
the screen, but I am not sure, though you can check it by
moving the mouse and watching which numbers change.

Good luck, I think my first suggestion might be the best.

Mike.


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## Chucktin (Oct 3, 2018)

GPS units and Google Earth can be updated. I do an update before a trip.
Having said that I am surprised by that lack of accuracy of the local maps they contain.
On one trip to North Carolina I found that the GARMIN GPS in the car and the road we were on were off by at least a half mile, we were south of the GARMIN track.
I've since been told you can submit such errors to GARMIN and Google Earth. But I suspect they are using Federal Highway base maps and the error was in that data.


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## Pappy (Oct 3, 2018)

Not to much faith in them since we ended up at a dead end road in Maryland. I still like, and use, Mapquest hard copies.


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## Ronni (Oct 3, 2018)

I have personally found that a Garmin unit or something similar, vs the GPS on my iPhone, sometimes returns different results.  I have no idea why, I thought they used the same technology, just different devices.  

That so many people are being directed to the wrong address tells me that the information being supplied them is wrong.

I will tell you, I've done satellite views (vs map views) of my home and other places with Google Earth, Google Maps, the Apple map on my iPhone.   The information isn't current...e.g. wrong car in the driveway, winter scene when it's summer etc, even after updating. 

That said, I still find it absolutely amazing that I can get on Google Earth and look at my childhood home, all the way in Western Australia, with the click of a button!!


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## Chucktin (Oct 3, 2018)

It takes time, effort, and expense to update the base map data. It is not current (usually) nor real time.
It is absolutely amazing to look back at the house I grew up in! Small, dinky place tho it was huge to a small child.


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## jujube (Oct 3, 2018)

I've tried for years to get both MapQuest and Google Maps to stop showing a street going into our neighborhood that hasn't been there in about ten years.  The street was closed off and houses were built across the property.  The directions say to turn into that street to get to our house.  I tell everyone listen to the directions I give you and DON'T PAY ATTENTION TO MAPQUEST AND GOOGLE MAPS! but they do anyway and then they can't find our house.  

I'm guessing that the street is still showing on the official city map so they won't change it.


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## Chucktin (Oct 10, 2018)

I'd bet the update form and data are sitting in some local government IN box and being ignored [emoji52]


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## HipGnosis (Oct 24, 2018)

I would try giving people the address of a nearby business to put in their phone or GPS and then give them step-by-step directions to your house.


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