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Has anyone any ideas on what should be done with a sat nav taken in the car in France  - they mostly have the speed camera facility and these are not permitted. Also - what happens if your sat-nav is built in to the car?

Supplementary q - I understand intercoms on motorbikes have also been outlawed.

Has anyone any idea if fines are being imposed - cars impounded etc? There is quite a lot of conjecture about so some facts would be helpful. Thank you. PB

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[quote user="phylisbide"]Has anyone any ideas on what should be done with a sat nav taken in the car in France  - they mostly have the speed camera facility and these are not permitted. Also - what happens if your sat-nav is built in to the car?[/quote]

Satnavs should EITHER have the latest speed camera database downloaded on to them (which will contain the correct data for France)

OR have the camera warning switched off - it is straightforward to do on most satnavs

If the satnav is built-in, then the same applies - there is usually a way of updating the camera database or switching it off.

[quote user="phylisbide"]Has anyone any idea if fines are being imposed - cars impounded etc? There is quite a lot of conjecture about so some facts would be helpful. Thank you. PB[/quote]

As has been discussed previously, this law is pretty much unenforceable, so if people do NOT update the database or cannot update it or forget to turn it off, then the chances of being checked are probably nil.

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[quote user="Pickles"]As has been discussed previously, this law is pretty much unenforceable[/quote]And you know what they say about unenforceable laws being bad laws.

I suspect the numbers for prosecutions or fines will fall into the same camp as for Hi-Viz jackets, no doubt to be joined in due course by breathalyser fines to make the hat trick.

It's not as though any of these measures could really be labelled as a major contribution to road safety [blink]

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I think the answer is that in France the warnings will not work.  I have just used a sat nav for the first time for my trip to the UK, coming back via Spain .... in the UK and Spain, once I had set the equipment to give me the warnings, I got a nice beep.  I changed nothing on coming back into France, and got no warnings at all ... and most of my journey was on autoroutes.  So, since I did update it before I left, I presume the system just did not sound the warnings ...

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[quote user="Judith"]I think the answer is that in France the warnings will not work.  I have just used a sat nav for the first time for my trip to the UK, coming back via Spain .... in the UK and Spain, once I had set the equipment to give me the warnings, I got a nice beep.  I changed nothing on coming back into France, and got no warnings at all ... and most of my journey was on autoroutes.  So, since I did update it before I left, I presume the system just did not sound the warnings ...

[/quote]

It depends on the Satnav manufacturer and whether you have a camera warning subscription.

For some manufacturers, the "update" just deletes the French camera warnings: in other cases (eg Garmin, probably TomTom) warnings are not given of cameras but of  "dangerous zones", which may or may not contain a camera. The length of these zones is generally longer than the warning that was previously given for cameras.

The warnings on my Garmin work in France, but they are now announced as "dangerous zones" rather than "speed camera" or whatever it was before.

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My TomTom seems to have almost all of the speed limits built in to the map. You can set it to give an alarm shout you exceed them. I wonder if this is another way round the French laws that they have come up with?

I would think it a bit dangerous to read a map and drive at the same time in just the same way it is to use the phone or sent text messages. [;-)]

Older cars with built in GPS use DVD's I believe so you need to buy an up to date disc. When I had my Disco a new map cost around Ā£120 which is way to much I think. More modern cars seem to use memory cards which you can take out and update via your computer which no doubt will also cost a lot of money as well. New maps from TomTom cost just over Ā£90 but you can pay quarterly if you wish. You can just rely on the map updates but once you get beyond a couple of years worth it slows the device down because of the way they work.

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This isn't really the problem it appears to be.

There are large warning signs when you are approaching static camera's in France, along with speed limit signs just before the camera's - so althought the camera's are not as easily seen as they are in the uk - you are alerted before passing by.

I have a Tomtom, and when I logged onto my account last week it automatically gave the option of a free update to legalise the satnav in France - so I now get warnings of 'danger zones' when approaching a camera, rather than the actual camera position being shown on the satnav.

And finally - we were stopped by gendarmes a couple of weeks ago manning a mobile speed check, and although we were less than 2mph over the limit, we were fined for speeding. The satnav was on at the time, and very visible to the officer, and although he looked at it several times - he made no reference to it at all.

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[quote user="Quillan"]

My TomTom seems to have almost all of the speed limits built in to the map. You can set it to give an alarm shout you exceed them. I wonder if this is another way round the French laws that they have come up with?  That feature has been there for years Q

I would think it a bit dangerous to read a map and drive at the same time  [;-)] I think it was Ernst's boldening that refered to the route to UK back via Spain? [:)] not a reference to actually using a map whilst driving, although that is dangerously what we did before satnavs but at least you could avoid driving off cliffs and into rivers with that system [;-)]

[/quote]
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I have to say I have had my current TomTom for a few years now and clearly as I am still posting I have not driven over a cliff. [;-)]

Like all things in life if you don't keep them up to date then you get problems. I remember reading ages ago that a lot of accidents with lorries going down narrow roads, stuck on bridges, stuck under bridges etc is because they use the wrong type of GPS. If you look on the TomTom website (for example) they sell a GPS specially for lorries. You enter the dimensions of your lorry (height and width) then it will only use routes where your lorry will fit. They also have the places lorries can park and/or refuel etc that are not available to us car drivers. The problem is they cost a lot more than a TomTom you can buy in a shop or from Amazon so of course the drivers buy the cheaper version and then get problems.

It's a bit like maps really, I wonder how many people have come off the road, hit a tree, lamp post or even a person because they were trying to look at a map while driving. I don't object to people using maps rather than a GPS, it's their choice but apart from the odd joke now and again I just wish people who have never used one didn't make snide remarks about them. That's a general comment by the way and not aimed at any individual.

Mine has done me well, one error in all these years, well not an error so much as wanted to take me down a road I didn't like the look of. I always plug mine in for an update every month and get new maps once a year.

Going back to the OP's question, if you keep it updated you should be OK.

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[quote user="AnOther"][quote user="Judith"]I have just used a sat nav for the first time for my trip to the UK, coming back via Spain[/quote]Are you sure you wouldn't have been better off with a plain old map [:D][:D][:D]

[/quote]

AnO - until last year I had no problems with the map reading - and scorned the use of a sat nav - but since my eyes are awaiting cataract treatment, I am finding it more and more difficult to read the map, the signs and drive at the same time, especially on roads I don't know and especially in Spain as the signs are smaller and less well organised .... so it did this time pay for itself - but only when I didn't know the road, or went wrong (twice in say 2000 miles).  Driving alone makes the sat nav at least a useful adjunct.  Since I try to stay withing the speed limits, the speed warnings, or danger warnings, are only useful when I am not sure what the speed limit is or it changes regularly, as I cannot see what the sat nav is saying well enough ... as it's pretty small ....

As with all technology - it is wise to know when to ignore it as well as to believe it ...... interesting when you do ignore ... how long it takes to work out you meant to ignore it ...!!!

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I was only pulling your leg Judith [kiss]

[quote user="fluffy tree"]There are large warning signs when you are approaching static camera's in France, along with speed limit signs just before the camera's - so althought the camera's are not as easily seen as they are in the uk - you are alerted before passing by[/quote]you are a bit behind the times, the warning signs are being phased out and replaced , possibly, by speed indicator displays.

[quote user="Quillan"]Like all things in life if you don't keep them up to date then you get problems.[/quote]

Can't really agree with that. I have not updated my Garmin since I bought it in 2006 and whilst it obviously does get confused with new roundabouts and stretches of road I don't find it much of a problem.

New roundabouts are I find quite easy to spot with a MK1 eyeball and similarly new bits of road are usually rather large and exretmely difficult to miss or get lost on.

[quote user="woolybanana"]I just with the bloody things would indicate

the prioritƩs Ơ droite in big cities. Brussels last week was a soddin

nightmare.[/quote]

I think once you get off the main arterial roads and into the banlieues it's safest to assume that PaD applies to all joining roads !

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aaagh, two days ago I decided to pay Ā£79 for a lifetime update package from Garmin, as my satnav still had its original maps from 5 years ago covering Western Europe. I've spent the last two days trying to transfer new maps in, 2/3 hour on a phone line, and I've somehow deleted all the the UK (to where I shall be flying back in a couple of days' time so great urgency) and all of France. However, despite clicking France on their download map, it has given me Austria and Czechoslovakia instead ... I didn't think my geography was that terrible. This is all true, by the way! Currently it is connected to my PC and I am trying to download France and UK only, but it says there's no enough memory. WHAT???? Five years ago it had the whole of Western Europe in it, now it can't just hold two countries ... Garmin says that's possible, map detail has changed, etc. Really I should have taken my trip back, gone into the nearest Halfords and bought a new one. But I shall persevere ... when they work they are wonderful. And when you try to update them you need the patience of a saint! Aaargggh!
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Ive said it before and I'll say it again, map updates are not really worth it, save the money and add a few more pounds and you get a nice new machine (and battery) with the latest map anyway and the electronics (and memory) are all new and correct for the new maps. The satnav chips will be the latest so acquiring satellite lock much quicker than the old one together with a host of new features.
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