There's a commercial for an insurance company where a driver wrecks his car when his GPS tells him "turn right…" and he does so before it can add "…in fifty feet." As Computerworld reports, these kind of incidents actually happen in real life. There've been several reports of trains hitting cars after the Darwin Award candidate behind the wheel followed the sat-nav's directions to turn onto the railroad tracks (the drivers managed to escape unharmed). Others have driven into ponds and lakes, sandpiles at construction sites or gone the wrong way down one-way streets because they trusted their GPS and ignored road signs. It's gotten so bad in England that they've started posting "ignore your sat-nav" signs in the areas where the problems occur the most. Of course, if the idiots don't believe a sign that says "one way" or "road closed," why would they pay attention to one telling them to ignore their electronic back-seat driver? [Thanks to KixStart for the link]
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I think they had an episode of “The Office” about this, where Michael Scott, the reigonal manager and Dwight, the assistant (to the) reigonal manager drove into a lake while following their gps set.
What’s the chance that said people were also using their cells/texting/navigating through ipod menus, or be otherwise distracted, just to add to the cacophony inside the cabin?
Others have…gone the wrong way down one-way streets because they trusted their GPS and ignored road signs.
I’m not familiar with many of the streets in our capitol city of Hartford, CT. One day last year, I was using my Garmin nuvi 350 to guide me to a courthouse in Hartford, where I’d been summoned as a potential juror.
As I got close to the courthouse, the Garmin said to take a right onto a certain street. I started to turn, but caught the “One Way” sign just in time and quickly U-turned the Hell out of there.
So I can see how NAV units can lead some into trouble.
I guess common sense needs to prevail when using a sat-nav device. Consumer’s get the impression that the devices are not infallable. These are good tools for general direction but, you shouldn’t rely on them completely especially if you don’t update the maps periodically.
The sad part is that these same people who drive down railroad tracks, into buildings, ponds etc. also vote and procreate.
I’ve always thought that it was incredibly dumb the way my satellite navigator shows the little red circle “wrong way” symbol at streets that I can’t turn onto from my position. In 30 years of driving I’ve never driven the wrong direction in traffic (much) but now I need an electronic device to tell me not to do it?
After reading this post, I guess I can see why the manufacturer thinks it needs to include these “clues for the clueless.”
So far, my Luddite cheapskatedness has prevented me from buying one to find my way around inside the I 495 loop around Bahstin. I rely upon a well thumbed trio of road atlases. To paraphrase Dan’l Boone, I never get really lost, but I’ve been a mite confused for an hour or two. But I’ve managed to avoid water hazards and trains.
I came *very* close to applying for a job with a Sat-Nav company (This was about 2 years ago).
The job would have been to drive around the country and verify road restrictions (one-way, no left turn, etc.)
I guess the companies are having trouble filling those positions….:-D…
It makes you wish there were a lot more trains running…
I wonder if Onstar directions by voice is worse since there’s no corresponding picture? I googled it, nothing popped out… but that’s cool, Onstar could make you wreck, then call for help.
I’m regretting getting my parents a gps unit for Christmas now.
The Garmin we have has led us down the wrong way a few times, but most of the time, it is accurate. We were coming home from vacation and in Arkansas, I had terrible stomach pains. I had loaded a POI (Points of interst) file from the net that showed every hospital’s location in the country. I looked up the closest one and told it to get us there. We were going through neighborhoods of houses and got to the end of a cul-de-sac and it told us that we were there. We were actually at the back end of the hospital’s property that backed into the cul-de-sac. Frustrated, I looked up the next closest one and started to procede to it when we found the first one we were looking for. Long story longer, everything was fine after a decent bowel movement. At least I wasn’t checked into the hospital.
Sounds like folks have been lulled into being “just a bunch of consumers”.
See the ad, buy the product (& into the lifestyle), respond to the instructions – no questions asked.
Exactly where corporations want ’em. Great conditioning.
A few years ago, before the days of ubiquitious GPS, I had a similar occurance with Yahoo Maps. I was in a somewhat rural part of Maine going down a road it directed me onto. It started out fine, but kept getting worse and worse – dirt road (it was winter so it was hard to see exactly what I was driving on), and then rocks in the road kept getting bigger and bigger until I could barely drive around them (I was in my old Saab convertible, of all vehicles). Then I saw a sign that explained it all – I was on a snowmobile trail!
Had to very carefully backup for about 500 yards before I found a place to turn around…
To be fair, mapmakers have been getting it wrong for years and they still sometimes do.
A couple of years ago, I got lost in New Mexico because my map said that NM State Route 20 was East of Fort Sumner, when in fact it was about 1 mile West of town. I drove about 20 minutes until I realized that the map was wrong.
Similarly, my Microsoft MapPoint software insists that there is a wonderful road in Rancho Santa Margarita, CA called Trabuco Creek Rd.
I’ve driven past it, and Trabuco Creek Rd. is two ruts in the middle of a creek bed that’s impassible without 4WD when dry and impassible period when it rains.
Vision of the future – loads of lousy drivers following their sat-navs as they tool about from A to B, their eyes on the screen and their attention NOT on the road. Roads really are getting more dangerous, aren’t they?
@turbosaab – I call that a feature of SatNav. If your Nav systems uses Navteq maps or you happen to follow Mapquest to my house the directions lead you on a road that’s passable by 4×4 in the summer at best. In the winter it’s unmaintained. When I bought the house, it took me weeks to figure out why the home owner’s insurance inspector couldn’t find the place. He was using Mapquest instead of believing my directions (of course the correct way to my house isn’t much better, but at least it’s maintained in the winter).
“It’s gotten so bad in England that they’ve started posting “ignore your sat-nav” signs in the areas where the problems occur the most.”
Here is the link to that story the London Mail:
http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=436983&in_page_id=1770
My own story: This involves a good old fashioned 2 dimensional map. I was looking at my road map of NJ and since my wife and I had some time to kill I wanted to go some place I had never been to before. So I looked at the map and picked a town named Quaker Bridge in the middle of Wharton State Forrest – the largest state forest in NJ.
The map showed the road and the town with the symbols to denote the smallest of rural roads and towns. So I was expecting a two lane road with no shoulder and a podunk town with half dozen houses or less and a gas station/country store. We got onto the road where the map said to go and the road imediately became dirt. As we drove deeper into the forest the hard packed dirt gave way to soft sand. There was nothing around but trees with “No Hunting” signs nailed to them. Several times we were passed (the road was barely wide enough for two vehicles) by 4×4 SUV’s and pickups. As the sand got deeper I was beginning to worry that our FWD 1987 Toyota Corolla LE 4 door might get stuck, but I kept going. My wife was no longer appreciating my wonderlust anymore (maybe her being pregnate with our first child had something to do with it).
We finally came to a small metal grate bridge just wide enough for one car that spanned a picturesque stream in the middle of the this huge forest. I stopped the car and got out to admire the view. There was no sound of civilization anywhere not even aircraft, just the birds and the running water to listen too. I imagined this is what the New World was like when the first European setlers arrived here.
Then it hit me. I had reached the destination on my map. THIS little metal grate overpass was “Quaker Bridge”, NJ. We continued on our way and eventually exited the forest and back to civilization.
I chuckle thinking about the Knight Rider pilot episode where KITT auto-pilots based on GPS and navigational maps downloaded real-time.
“He” obviously has access to better maps than the rest of us.
Sometimes I find that uses Google Maps satellite mode does wonders for explaining confusing intersections or areas (before I get there).
Related story: I was in Sears last month to buy something small. Couldn’t find a cashier so I ended up in the electronics department. In front of me in line was a teenage Hispanic male with his mother. His mother didn’t speak a word of English… but I could sense that she was the one that was going to be paying for whatever it was he was trying to buy.
He was trying to buy the display unit for his car’s GPS system. Someone had broken in to his car and stole it, leaving the other half of the system in the car. He didn’t want to buy a complete new system, just the part the was stolen.
Sears couldn’t help him. He looked so dejected.
I couldn’t help but think that if I were his dad, I’d tell him to buy a damn map. What does an 18 year old kid need with a GPS system that mom and dad are going to pay for. She didn’t look rich. She looked like she worked hard as a maid or something.
Somehow this kid convinced his parents that he NEEDED a GPS. This is in Santa Barbara… only 5 miles wide. There is only one freeway. If you drive far enough, you hit either ocean or mountain. It is damn hard to to get lost there.
Sad…