Should a GPS be Smarter?

If you've ever used a GPS, you know they're not perfect. They may tell you to get on non-existent streets, or send you through city streets instead of the highway going around. With modern GPS's sporting processors fast enough to play simple games and enough disk space to hold a short movie, why don't these devices make use of all that power?

After having taken my GPS up and down a good portion of the eastern seaboard, and used it quite a bit around town, I've noted several shortcomings with GPS's (or at least in particular Garmin Nuvi devices).

The unit itself and features overall is great, but sometimes its route selection seems less-than-optimal. I think most of the time, especially over larger distances, staying on the highway for as long as possible is usually faster. Prevailing traffic speed is usually greater than the posted speed limit on many highways. However, I think when looking strictly at the speed limit of roads, some smaller roads, while have a slower speed limit, are considerably shorter in distance. But on that same token, smaller roads may involve many stop signs or traffic lights, many turns or heavier traffic that make your average speed much lower than the speed limit.

I think one of the biggest drawbacks of many GPS's, is while they might be able to determine what is a highway and what isn't, they aren't aware of traffic lights and stop signs. Some might even be able to pick up traffic information, but I have found mine to not be very accurate or reliable when it comes to traffic.

How could the GPS be smarter?

Allegedly some will "learn" your average speeds for different road types, but my GPS still seems to favor small roads when I almost consistently prove the highway to be faster. I think the GPS should take the ability to learn average driving speeds and use it as a strong factor in calculating routes. I think this can be especially be useful when driving in an area you drive a lot in... it can learn your speeds on specific roads, so it knows which roads you travel the fastest on, on average.

Some GPS's have an "avoid highways" option, but not all have a "prefer highways" option. A good GPS should have the "prefer highways" option.

Just general observation and educated guesses lead me to believe that when a GPS calculates a route, it draws a line between the two points, and searches for roads between them. So if there is a quicker way that may involve going "backwards" (or otherwise a little out of the way) for a short period of time, it is unlikely the GPS will select that route. So, GPS's certainly have room for improvement, however they will always get you to where you are going, one way or another.

Having a GPS on hand is still a major asset when you are driving on unfamiliar roads and help you get to where you are going. So what do you think, could your GPS be smarter?

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