GPS Max Speed 118 MPH! Is there a black box to confirm?

[OVTaco]

I have a Garmin Street Pilot GPS, I reset the trip meter and max speed every week to track my work time in my Truck Office. About a month ago the top speed was 95 MPH? I thought WTF? Then a week or so later 118 MPH! Whoa!!!

I questioned my room mate who had driven me to a late night party where I only stayed about 45 minutes. He said he saw that too while waiting for me in the parking lot listening to the radio and checking out my GPS. Hmmmm.

As far as I can tell he did not drive it during the week 118 MPH registered, unless he was really sneaky and went out in the middle of the night and did a perfect parking job which he never does otherwise.

I have had the truck up to 85 or so and it was struggling to fight the wind resistance. 95 is probably possible, but I wonder if anybody has gotten their Tacoma to 118 MPH??

So thats the story of my dilemma. I wrote to Garmin support, and they say a glitch was "possible" but unlikely to that extreme. They recommended I update the software.

My question to the group: Is there a black box in the Tacoma that the dealer could pull speed data from? This seems to be the only way I can find out if my roomate is telling the truth.

[Dana_15]

Slow down.

[hsracer201]

gosh, i hope there isn't such a "black box", that could be incriminating.

not that i regularly break 100 in my truck, but you know...

[Whynot]

That's about right with a V-6 6 speed. I have been around that on the autobahn. I will check it against my gps sometime, that was just indicated speed on the dash.

[el_smurfo]

As far as I know, the "Black Box" only keeps data for the few seconds preceding an airbag deployment...

[donb01]

I know it is possible for most vehicle manufacturers these days to pull out speed, whether the seat belts were fastened, whether you had the brake on and how hard, tach, throttle position and a few other things. I am not sure about the headlights but think so. I am not sure if this is only following an accident or anytime. Manufacturers claim it was set up so they can get more information on how to make their vehicles safer in accidents.

There was a big squeal about this a few years ago in that it would give an insurance adjuster the ability to plug into your car after an accident and use it as a basis to deny your claim, and the same for law enforcement. People were demanding the process be banned. It's been a while since I heard anything about it tho.

[Silver-Bolt]

Yes, the Tacoma's have a black box. The dealer can pull info from it. If your GPS is hand held and you carry it around the swing motion of your arm can alter the speed.

[the.phantom]

yep i have a handheld gps and when i walk under a overpass my walking speed goes from 4mph to 35 mph for a instant. so if the sig got blocked for a sec and then returned strong i can see how it would happen
but i have a TRUCK and the aerodynamics of a barn and have no desire to see what max speed is

[TucsonTaco]

I checked mine yesterday and it registered 185 mph as my max speed (nuvi 350) -- I figured it was from the last time I powered it down, powered it up with "poor signal," drove anyway, and then got reception.

I assumed it was because the position of the GPS location was different between the two places I powered off and then got reception again a few miles down the road.

I dunno -- and I'm not sure what I just said makes any sense.

[eccracer104]

Originally Posted by OVTaco

but I wonder if anybody has gotten their Tacoma to 118 MPH??

Yes. Our trucks can go that fast.

[gfi]

with a double cab v6 auto I CAN DO 110 PRETTY EASY!

[ForTech]

Originally Posted by TucsonTaco

I checked mine yesterday and it registered 185 mph as my max speed (nuvi 350) -- I figured it was from the last time I powered it down, powered it up with "poor signal," drove anyway, and then got reception.

I assumed it was because the position of the GPS location was different between the two places I powered off and then got reception again a few miles down the road.

I dunno -- and I'm not sure what I just said makes any sense.

BINGO!

Contrary to popular belief, a GPS does not constantly track your position but rather records a specific location point at selected intervals. Points are usually collected more often on a winding road versus a straight one (if point collection data is set to automatic). Your track log is then displayed on the screen as the GPS "connects the dots".

Speed is calculated by the amount of time it takes to get from one specific point to another (in addition to the distance). If your satellite signal is temporarily weak or disturbed it is possible that the GPS will trick itself into believing it jumped from its last recorded point before disturbance to its present position in a shorter than realistic time, therefore creating your pseudo max speed.

[flyingface]

I was playing around with my Garmin 60CsX the day that I got it, inside the house, under a metal roof. The poor reception caused it to "think" that I was moving sporadically in half-mile increments. The max speed showed 467 mph...
So you could have got a patch of bad reception and caused it to bounce around on the map a little, causing the high speed register.
Just my $.02. Otherwise, slow the heck down.

[Whynot]

The black boxes continually record I believe about 30 secs worth of data, in the case of an accident, it stops recording over and saves the previous 30 secs(or whatever the number is). They do not have the memory to record and save a whole lot of time.

[MikeNH]

I had a real good tail wind...