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Previous: Wrinkle-resistant product page | Main | Next: Featuritis
July 13, 2005 09:59 AM
Broken: Hummer navigational system
Kari White writes:
The GM navigational system is broken. I purchased a Hummer and since I frequently get lost, I wanted the latest navigation system.
I can figure out most any electronic device, but I met my match with Nat, the navigation system. Nat and I started off badly when I realized that she required a DVD to be inserted into my CD drive. I paid $3000 not to use my CD player?
The user manual was virtually no help at all. The buttons are labeled poorly, with strange icons supposedly representing "menu" and "back", although why they couldn't just be labeled as such I will never know. The joystick was a nightmare. Once, Nat got stuck directing me to my house and I had to eject the DVD just to get her to stop.
For a system that was supposed to make life easier, it ended up being a big headache. After a year of owning my Hummer, I still rely on common street maps to find my way around.
So you're a status-seeking attention-deprived individual with too much money and/or credit rating who's constantly lost and it's the fault of the car company?
I've got an idea for you - take your hummer back to the dealer, buy a prius and a map. you can still get one of those tacky "I support the war" yellow ribbons for the back of the toyota. That says every bit as much as your gas-hogging SUV.
I'm sorry, I've got absolutely no sympathy whatsoever for hummer drivers.
What do you need a navagation system on a Hummer for? Why don't you just pop the curb and take it off-road like it was made for that or something? Or did you just buy it to "look cool?"
I don't think you'll get any good replies to this one, partly because you haven't included any photos of the navigational system or the manual, but mostly because I can safely say pretty much everybody hates Hummer drivers. (Hell, I'm a pro-war conservative, and I hate those damned things.)
heh... if you take back the Hummer and get a Prius, you don't need a map because the Prius comes with a very good navigation system, which has it's own dedicated DVD player, a touchscreen with text buttons rather than obscure icons, and a very simple and useful interface.
I think this comic has a good suggestion for handling the problem.
http://www.toothpastefordinner.com/061203/off-road-vehicles.jpg
I'd love to hear why you need such a stupidly large vehicle ? Bad potholes on your roads ? Lots of swamps to cross ?
I don't think it's the navigation system that's broken...
I know a web site that will fix Kari's problems: http://www.fuh2.com
Could we focus on the broken product and not attack the owner? A lot of these comments fall under "inappropriate".
Not being able to use nav system and CD at the same time seems pretty broken to me, regardless of what it's installed in or what it cost.
Poor usability of car radios etc is odd, given how absurdly usable pedals and wheel are for driving a car: simple, intuitive, and providing nice feedback to the driver. (I've always thought that the indicator stalk is a usability masterstroke, too.)
Pedals are not intuitive. They are easily learned, and work well, but that's not the same as intuitive.
If you had never seen a car before, how would your intuition tell you what the functions of the pedals were? (Especially on a car with a manual transmission.)
I'm not only having trouble understanding this post, but even verifying it is accurate. According to the Hummer website (www.hummer.com), there's an optional item called the "Touch Screen Navigation Radio". Is this what the poster is calling "Nat"?
We can't sympathize nor disagree with the claims about the buttons and the "joystick" without at least a picture, nor do the complaints have enough detail (Nat "got stuck") to be able to provide any meaningful feedback.
Finally, the fact that the vehicle is a Hummer is irrelevant. If GM's standard navigation system has user experience problems, many drivers of many types of vehicles should be affected.
Can we get some more information?
The navigation system does sound like it is broken. But I don't like hummer drivers either. Take the gas-guzzling war supporter back, and then buy an economy car and a map.
You should be able to afford it.
Wow, so many anti hummer people. Personally, i wish i owned a Hummer (original, not H2, those are hideous), but i guess alot of people complain about the "gas guzzlers" because the price of their gas is going up. Really now, who gives a damn what you drive. If you're all so damned concerned, go ride a bike and stop driving your cars.
The system itself seems broken, a standard GPS map sounds like it could do better than this NAT system.
I'd drive drive my hummer right up these whining people's asses. I'm thinking about getting a hummer and souping it up so much that I'll have to constantly pour gas into it while I'm drivng, just to piss off the people who care.
Who cares what he drives, the product in it was broke. That's what this website is for. If you want to bitch about the environment, go to craigslist.com
I'd say just about everything about the H2 is broken. I'd be hard pressed to find a motor vehicle more poorly suited to its task.
Sounds broken EXCEPT that hummers and jeeps are deliberately designed to have poor usability. I've driven these sorts of vehicles and they're badly designed deliberately. It's part of the mystique of the image, you should have known that before you paid that sort of money for the thing. Not broken.
What's broken is the name. The last thing I want to do is announce in a social setting, "I gotta hummer!"
Maybe he was joking, but I can assure you that J.Scott was right: vehicles like the H2 are designed for a bad user experience. That's not because of car bulders sadism, but because of users masochism. I explain:
People who buy an H2 are people who want a gigant car that looks like a tank, or better, the japan animation version of a tank. City cars usually have insides built to please and relax the users, providing him the less information and actions (means: displays and buttons) they can. Sport cars users like to have more information over a car, and designers give them more, and arrange them differently. Even if there is no differnce in informations and actions you need to use a city or a sport car.
If you buy an H2, designes known that you don't want a looking comfortable vehicles. Big squared boxes outside, big squared boxes inside.
Car navigator falls under same rules: do you think that a roundy bouncy clean interface can look good inside a wannabe-tank car?
Anyway, those are not speculations, but what I learned at industrial design college.
Well congrats, you bought an overpriced piece of crap SUV that is going to suck up a ton of gas as you drive around lost, too ditzy to understand your own toys.
If feel no sympathy, ever think that maybe it isn't the device that's broke but it might be your logic?
Lukino, I'm sure it wasn't intentional, but you have penned what might be the greatest (and funniest) line I've read in a long time:
"do you think that a roundy bouncy clean interface can look good inside a wannabe-tank car?"
I can see maybe getting lost in a new surrounding. Eventhough I don't have that problem because I'm very good with directions.
But needing it for directions to your home tells me one of two things: either you purchased it as a toy to show-off to your colleagues which explains the hummer or you truly do get lost in familiar territory so shouldn't be driving in the first place.
Also what I see as broken is putting a dvd into a cd player. After all you can play a cd in a dvd player but not the other way around.
I can see needing directions to my home if I am somewhere unfamilliar(or at least part way there).
Probably what he meant was that the nav system requires that a dvd be inserted in the player which he uses to play cds in order for the nav system to acces it's maps. Not nessairly that it is exclusivly a cd player.
Of course it could be a data cd that he is calling a dvd.
Sorry I can't seem to resist playing the "strait man" and taking what people literally, I am sure you probably already knew all that. :)
Sounds like a lot of youare jealous that YOU cannot afford a Hummer. I love the look of these vehicles, and could afford one, but I just can't see spending that much on a vehicle. I drive an SUV, and it's MY business what the mileage is, not any of yours. So why don't you whiny pony-tail, and granola crowd, take your complaining elsewhere.
I can't comment on the Nav system, as there are no pictures of it, and I have no first hand experience with it. I will say, if his claims are true, that you cannot use the radio, and the Nav system at the same time, then it definately IS broken.
Damn...you tree hugging, anti-war, America hating, immoral, leftist, socialist, liberals get me spun up so easily. I may just have to club a baby seal, and make a terrorist wear underwear on his head just to purge my system of your nonsense.
if youre going to buy a hummer, dont get one of those H2 piles of garbage. everyone that buys one just wants to look cool. but now that everyone has one (just look around i cant go a day without seeing 4 or 5 different ones) its become almost tacky to own an H2.
if you want to own a car to make you look rich, there are hundreds of other options that will make you look rich and cool, not just "rich".
if you really want a hummer, get an old military hummer, the 'real' hummers. while youre at it, get a minigun installed in the back. i hear they are designed to hold all sorts of cool things on the back!
General Liberalhater (at least he's honest) said, "it's MY business what the mileage is, not any of yours." Wrong. Your gas-guzzling, polluting, irresponsible choice of vehicles drives up my gas prices, wastes the resources that my daughter and her generation will need, pollutes the air I breathe, and puts me at unnecessary risk when you drive as though your vehicle can handle anything. Remember society, that quaint concept where we all watch out for each other and our mutual interests?
General Liberalhater wrote:
Damn...you tree hugging, anti-war, America hating, immoral, leftist, socialist, liberals get me spun up so easily. I may just have to club a baby seal, and make a terrorist wear underwear on his head just to purge my system of your nonsense.
As a farily liberal guy, let me clarify a few things that at least my brand of liberalism believe about gas mileage. I dont really care if you guys go out and spend ridicoulous amounts of money on cars and gas (i wouldnt mind having a $200,000 sports car). You can spend all your money on gas and i wont shed a tear over your loss. My problem with gas guzzlers is who profits from their reckless behavior. Where do you think your money is going when you gas up? some of it goes to Dick Cheney and Haliburton, but alot of it goes to Saudi Arabia, Iran, Yemen, Syria, etc. etc. etc. Now returning the previously quoted statement, I cannot think of anything less patriotic, more america hating, then giving money to America's enemies. How do you think thte Bin Laden family got rich? Oil. You conservatives need to stop spewing your idealistic lies and come back to reality. Young American men and women are dying in Iraq fighting an ever growing insurgency that is financed by. . . you.
For the record I bike most places I go, unless it is freezing outside (i live in chicago) or I am going somewhere quite far away. When I do buy a car I plan on buying hybrid. I for one am glad that I can go to sleep without worrying that I am indirectly killing America's youth.
"Wrong. Your gas-guzzling, polluting, irresponsible choice of vehicles drives up my gas prices, wastes the resources that my daughter and her generation will need, pollutes the air I breathe, and puts me at unnecessary risk when you drive as though your vehicle can handle anything. Remember society, that quaint concept where we all watch out for each other and our mutual interests?"-Stoo
Well Stoo, again we go back to a comment i previously made, if you have such a problem with the use/waste of gasoline, then you yourself should stop using it. As for the "resources" that gas guzzlers consume. The sooner we run out of those, the better, because guess what, then we'll have to find a new way to travel around and get places, that more than likely will be less pollutant and less costly in the long run. If you want to save something for someone else, dont use it at all. When you've stopped driving you can come back and give us your bs without it being hyppocritical.
Stoo is not attacking the use of resources. He is attacking the *wasting* of resources. As long as he is not *wasting* resources himself, there is nothing hypocritical about this.
As for the H2: It's a Chevy Tahoe with a new exterior. The only reason to buy an H2 rather than a Tahoe is because you want to look big and tough. This is often known as "compensation".
I would not drive a Hummer if it were given to me for free. I would be embarrassed to be seen in a Hummer.
I bought a Prius two days ago. I quite like it. The navigation system is quite easy to figure out. It uses a DVD-ROM too, but the DVD does not conflict with the CD player. (The reason these use DVD's is so that you can update the map information by buying a newer DVD.)
This is seriously broken.
The navigation system should work in a hummer.
See, a broken nav system isn't going to stop anyone from buying a hummer if they want one.
However, if it doesn't work right then he will take many wrong turns, spend time idleing looking at a map, etc.
This leads to guzzling even more gas and destroying the ozone layer.
Seriously, what do you carry in that?
10 bags of groceries OR 4 people (driver included).
Fuck, don't buy a god damn truck if you aren't going to use it.
The only people that I ever want to see driving hummers are:
1. People in the armed forces.
2. People hauling literally tons of dirt, equiptment, supplies, etc.
Suprisingly enough, almost everyone that fits into category 2 is a member of category 1.
And if you were in the armed forces you would know how to drive and wouldn't have to worry about some stupid DVD player.
Ok so now you people really have taken this subject somewhere else.
"As a farily liberal guy, let me clarify a few things that at least my brand of liberalism believe about gas mileage. I dont really care if you guys go out and spend ridicoulous amounts of money on cars and gas (i wouldnt mind having a $200,000 sports car). You can spend all your money on gas and i wont shed a tear over your loss. My problem with gas guzzlers is who profits from their reckless behavior. Where do you think your money is going when you gas up? some of it goes to Dick Cheney and Haliburton, but alot of it goes to Saudi Arabia, Iran, Yemen, Syria, etc. etc. etc. Now returning the previously quoted statement, I cannot think of anything less patriotic, more america hating, then giving money to America's enemies. How do you think thte Bin Laden family got rich? Oil. You conservatives need to stop spewing your idealistic lies and come back to reality. Young American men and women are dying in Iraq fighting an ever growing insurgency that is financed by. . . you.
For the record I bike most places I go, unless it is freezing outside (i live in chicago) or I am going somewhere quite far away. When I do buy a car I plan on buying hybrid. I for one am glad that I can go to sleep without worrying that I am indirectly killing America's youth."
Says Mr. Patriotic Liberal. How are you patriotic if you don't even like the president of the United States? That says something right there.
And that comment has absolutley nothing to deal with a Hummer's Navigation System.
Thank you.
How are you patriotic if you don't even like the president of the United States?
Voicing dissent when we believe our leaders are causing harm to our country is absolutely patriotic.
Well, there's only one thing left to be said. Er...sung.
"Can you name the truck with four wheel drive,
smells like a steak and seats thirty-five..
Canyonero! Canyonero!
Well, it goes real slow with the hammer down,
It's the country-fried truck endorsed by a clown!
Canyonero! (Yah!) Canyonero!
[Krusty:] Hey Hey
The Federal Highway comission has ruled the
Canyonero unsafe for highway or city driving.
Canyonero!
12 yards long, 2 lanes wide,
65 tons of American Pride!
Canyonero! Canyonero!
Top of the line in utility sports,
Unexplained fires are a matter for the courts!
Canyonero! Canyonero! (Yah!)
She blinds everybody with her super high beams,
She's a squirrel crushing, deer smacking, driving machine!
Canyonero!-oh woah, Canyonero! (Yah!)
Drive Canyonero!
Whoah Canyonero!
Whoah!"
(from "The Simpsons")
Dragon wrote to me, "When you've stopped driving you can come back and give us your bs without it being hyppocritical."
Insulting those who disagree with you is a sure sign that either a) you know you're wrong or b) you're incapable of arguing your position on the merits.
I drive about 3,000 miles a year in a Pontiac Grand Am that gets around 25 mpg. Not as much as I'd like (had to trade in a Ford Probe that got 30+ in the city when I had a child, because the carseat wouldn't fit in the back), but I passed up several other cars I liked better, and specifically avoided SUVs, because I wanted the best mileage I could get in a car I could afford (which ruled out hybrids for me, unfortunately, until I can buy a used one in a few years).
And thanks to zxsdfxgf, who quite correctly pointed out that I'm not attacking the *use* of resources but the *waste*. If Dragon can provide a rational, coherent justification for why he needs a Hummer instead of a more socially responsible vehicle, I'd love to hear it -- but I don't expect to (see second paragraph above).
Dragon wrote: "...if you have such a problem with the use/waste of gasoline, then you yourself should stop using it....If you want to save something for someone else, dont use it at all. When you've stopped driving you can come back and give us your bs without it being hyppocritical."
Which sums up the problem with SUV owners quite nicely: they're doing the damage, but expect others to clean up after them. They claim to be rugged individualists when they're nothing but spoiled babies, demanding that everyone around them change to accommodate them.
I'll avoid this comment page from here on out. If i wanted to hear liberals yak i'd try cnn.com, for conservatives, townhall.
"Insulting those who disagree with you is a sure sign that either a) you know you're wrong or b) you're incapable of arguing your position on the merits.
I drive about 3,000 miles a year in a Pontiac Grand Am that gets around 25 mpg. Not as much as I'd like (had to trade in a Ford Probe that got 30+ in the city when I had a child, because the carseat wouldn't fit in the back), but I passed up several other cars I liked better, and specifically avoided SUVs, because I wanted the best mileage I could get in a car I could afford (which ruled out hybrids for me, unfortunately, until I can buy a used one in a few years).
And thanks to zxsdfxgf, who quite correctly pointed out that I'm not attacking the *use* of resources but the *waste*. If Dragon can provide a rational, coherent justification for why he needs a Hummer instead of a more socially responsible vehicle, I'd love to hear it -- but I don't expect to (see second paragraph above)."
-Stoo
"Fuck, don't buy a god damn truck if you aren't going to use it.
The only people that I ever want to see driving hummers are:
1. People in the armed forces.
2. People hauling literally tons of dirt, equiptment, supplies, etc.
Suprisingly enough, almost everyone that fits into category 2 is a member of category 1."
-zxsdfxgf
One, didnt say i need a hummer, i'd "like" to have one, and two, i am in the armed forces and such vehicles "are" necessary.
Also, i never insulted you, just saying you're a hyppocrit. I'm sure you don't push to get every single mile out of each gallon of gas you buy, making sure to never use air conditioning because that eats it up as well, im sure food is still wasted at your home, no matter how little of it, im sure some still goes into the garbage. Waste of resources would be defined as "using them unnecessarily" i'm sure it is unnecessary for you to be driving your vehicle anywhere, where you could easily walk or ride your bike. A vehicle is for convenience, and convenience of course can lead to waste. It is more convenient to have alot of food stored in your fridge, eventually some of which will get thrown out than it is to have the minimum amount of food in your fridge, and making it last till the very end, and in those circumstances, you have to drive out to the store more often i.e. wasting more fuel. Don't complain about people wasting resources when you do it yourself, it cant be helped, almost every single animal on this planet wastes its resources.
BTW, i probably wont get a chance to read your response, if you care to have one, i ship out tommorow. Won't be back for a while
There is a huge difference between wasting resources because it would be difficult or inconvenient not to and wasting resources for fun and to make yourself look cool.
It is not hypocritical to blame someone for doing something you do if they do it 10 times worse.
Good luck on your assignment.
"the japan animation version of a tank"
I just have to say that's the best description of a Hummer I have ever heard.
Anyway, Hummer drivers think they are cool until I slip past them in my 2005 Mustang GT. :)
Hummer drivers wouldn't know cool if an ice shelf collapsed on their head. :D
No one will probably scroll down to read this, but my husband had a similar problem with his new Ford Escape hybrid. The CD with navigation information has to be inserted into the in-dash player. WTF? You can either navigate or listen to music, but not both? He'd waited six months for the vehicle, but we were just about to refuse delivery when one of the mechanics finally pointed out that there is a 6-disk CD player under the front passenger seat. The music goes in there. Not terribly handy, but at least you can play music and still navigate. I wonder if Kari just hasn't found the multi-disk player in his/her Hummer yet. BTW, my husband did NOT specifically order a 6-disk CD-player. It seems you just get one when you order the navigation system, and they don't bother to tell you about it.
although i am not going to start you guys up again. as a 15 year old with my views on the world i would say that the people who buy those cars are overcompensating hugely, if you have seen the facts from people who care unlike yourselves when you and your stupid cars run out of fuel, what will u use, nuclear??? that's not renewable, and hybrid cars are only as good as where the power came from.
watch fahrenheit 9/11 with the subtitles and LEARN so that people like me don't have to suffer because of your selfishness
Who needs a car that big, anyway? It's a behemoth, but only has 7 or even 5 seats. Do yourself a favor, get a minivan. Same seating capacity, (The Toyota Sienna even has room for 8) better gas mileage, and you're less likely to dent the guy next to you.
Well, I would like to say my view:
Hummers are for Armed Forces only (H1). The H2, the H2T, and the H3 (is there an H3?) are just plain gay. Why would anyone want to drive around in a colored box that requires a fill-up every 5 miles? Just like Stoo said... you are wasting our gasoline, polluting the air our children, children's children, even, will live in, and you know what? By wasting gasoline, you are funding terrorism, which is what young men and women are fighting against this very second. So go buy your Hummer, and ask for the complimentary I SUPPORT THE WAR sticker. Go ahead, nobody's stopping you. Just remember... you are driving up gas prices, wasting gasoline, polluting the air, and donating to the Bin Laden fund.
Also, to make this topic relevant, I would like to add that it is the truth... I dont think you would find some roundy bouncy clean interface in a wannabe-tank car. (I'm still cracking up about that!!!) And, I would also like to inform you that the Hummer, along with all vehicles, is armed with the 25-caliber, auto-loading, laser aim RADIO... plays your choice of over 50 songs at any given time! Results may vary depending on location and weather conditions. Please contact your automobile manufacturer for more details. Read your manual for instructions on how to use this system if your vehicle is equipped with it. Side effects may include: solutions to your problem, entertainment by music, news updates, traffic reports, and weather alerts. This has been a paid commercial announcement.
ok, number 1, Hummers rule, all of them, the H1 is the best i admit, BUT, they do have their flaws, as do all GM Vehicles, actually i am an EXTREME american car hater, only two american cars i want, An H1(DUH) and a dodge viper. Number 2, if your gonna rag on someone about the car they drive, go back to middle school, im in high school, and think that all you people who are like 2x my age are acting like imature five year olds, i mean no insult or anything. My thinking is that we JUDGE people, too often in life, maybe Kari likes hummer, Is that too hard to grasp. Now lets focus on the tech issue(for once), (The integrated DVD navigation system comes complete with a DVD player and a navigation disc that includes map coverage for the continental U.S. and portions of Canada. The system can be adjusted to switch between audio prompts and displayed text messages to help guide drivers.*from the hummer website*)clearly it is an H2 that she bought. These trucks were built for combat, EVEN the H2, it has its roots in the H1, which i hope we all know how it came into being, if we do, i can email anyone who wants to know about it... sorry ADD, anyhow i sugest that you contact another hummer owner, and ask them if they have the same problems or if they had them.
for more, check out my website, if it works feel proud. if not email me and i will email you the hummer page.
ok im back moments later, i have one thing to say. Ford mustang, EWWW, im sorry but people who drive those are almost like the tuned H2s. Just my oppinion, other people have their own. and i respect that, KINDA like i have respect for hummer owners, they r people too, they have feelings, and i repeat myself when i say that you guys are acting like immiture five year olds.
ok me again. words can express(but i wont use them) what i feel, just barely, how insulted i am, first this is to help fix somehting, NOT to B**** at people because of their veiws, find a forum or something. ok Number 2, quit wining about patriotism, if i lived in the states id be really embarrased, patriotism my foot, if your president wants to bomb iraq fine, he can want, but if he does, i am out of there, thank god i am not american, i pitty you, your gas is more expensive than mine, and you guys are only defined by wars, ask someone from asia or sumpthin, and they will most likely answer, warmachine. China, LARGEST military on earth, when was the last major war they started? im sorry but this is scary how we treat people these days.
This is cool, you have to try it. I guessed 16787, and this game guessed it! See it here - http://www.funbrain.com/guess/
i happen to work for a facility that repairs the GM Nav units. After about 15 or 20 minutes of working one, i learned the basic features of using one of these and if you can remember what all of the buttons stand for then the operation is very straight forward. I liked it so much that i installed one into my own car, which wasn't even a GM. Also as far as the CD goes, i'm pretty sure that the car came with the option to buy a 6 or a 12 disk CD changer. If not, you can get one from crutchfield.com by a company called USA spec.
I have installed the GM diesel (turbocharged) in my Hummer and am averaging 22 MPG. Pretty much 25-56 on the highway.
Not all Hummers guzzle gas.
Oh, yes, one final thing....where I live and because of my occupation and being on mud-rutted country roads about 50% of the time to visit clients - it is just what the doctor ordered. Plus.....with 2-3 feet of snow in the winter, I can still make a living.
HOLY CRAP. What are you complaining about lady?! You've got a HUMMER! Common street maps?! I'm sorry, that's what people that aren't rich use.
Comments on this entry are closed
Previous: Wrinkle-resistant product page | Main | Next: Featuritis
It always seems to me that the more money you pay for a device, the more difficult it is to translate buttons, manuals, and operating systems. And that is broken too!
Posted by: Chaos at July 13, 2005 10:12 AM