Yep, I gotta point out that GPS is a system of satellites. GPS knows nothing about locations of things on the ground; it basically tells the time. Devices using GPS are navigation systems. Don’t blame the GPS for poor software in a navigation system.
This was my mother’s philosophy. She didn’t care how many miles out of the way a short trip took her if it meant she wasn’t sitting in traffic. Even if it took longer than just going the direct route with traffic.
Around the holidays in SW Colorado, no fewer than 6 people blindly followed their GPS when it told them to take a Forest Service road which is closed in the winter and had to be rescued when they got stuck… It is listed as the “quickest” way from Cortez to Norwood – which it is in the summer (by about 15 minutes); you’d think that they would have second thoughts when traveling up a virtually deserted 2-lane road in the Colorado Rockies in December which hadn’t seen any plowing since September.
I actually hate GPS – too many errors. We were driving in PA in an area that we go to less often (only once or twice a year for maybe 20 years) and needed to stop for lunch along the way. We tend to eat at fast food as we both have a variety of medical conditions and we know what we can eat there and it is cheap. Ahead of time we looked for someplace to stop before our usual BK location. Husband found a McD on the south side of the Interstate. When we got there the GPS sent us off at the correct exit and at the bottom of the ramp told us to turn right (north). I told husband to go left. He listened to the GPS. Sent us 2 blocks north, then had us turn right and then another right turn. Now on street parallel to road off the Interstate heading back to same. Had us take the road to where it dead ended at the Interstate (raised above) and then make a U-turn. Go back half a block to the back of a small shopping center and go through the shopping center back to the road off the Interstate. It then had us make a left turn – but instead of making that turn where we should have at a traffic light, we now had to do same on a 4 lane main road with no light to help us.
We have had many adventures like this because of stupid GPS directions – really like when it says to turn left and show to turn right or vice versa. Around here people turn onto train tracks as there is a parallel street adjacent to same and the GPS tells them to turn at the wrong point.
Templo S.U.D. over 4 years ago
GPS: ghetto positioning system
Yakety Sax over 4 years ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPnfuczOWb8
gammaguy over 4 years ago
Making time… or marking time?
Diat60 over 4 years ago
GPS has gotten more than one driver lost, some with dire results.
Michael G. over 4 years ago
Grr. My sisters use their GPS to get to places they have been brought to by car since they were infants.
micromos over 4 years ago
Different sides of the street or a one way street.
ima resident over 4 years ago
had a bumper sticker with that phrase, “I maybe lost; but, I making good time.”
Cactus-Pete over 4 years ago
Yep, I gotta point out that GPS is a system of satellites. GPS knows nothing about locations of things on the ground; it basically tells the time. Devices using GPS are navigation systems. Don’t blame the GPS for poor software in a navigation system.
WCraft Premium Member over 4 years ago
Ah – the proverbial “going nowhere fast…”
Argythree over 4 years ago
The unfortunate fact is, where roads are under construction, GPS is not very helpful…
LrdSlvrhnd over 4 years ago
This was my mother’s philosophy. She didn’t care how many miles out of the way a short trip took her if it meant she wasn’t sitting in traffic. Even if it took longer than just going the direct route with traffic.
Colorado Expat over 4 years ago
Around the holidays in SW Colorado, no fewer than 6 people blindly followed their GPS when it told them to take a Forest Service road which is closed in the winter and had to be rescued when they got stuck… It is listed as the “quickest” way from Cortez to Norwood – which it is in the summer (by about 15 minutes); you’d think that they would have second thoughts when traveling up a virtually deserted 2-lane road in the Colorado Rockies in December which hadn’t seen any plowing since September.
mafastore over 4 years ago
I actually hate GPS – too many errors. We were driving in PA in an area that we go to less often (only once or twice a year for maybe 20 years) and needed to stop for lunch along the way. We tend to eat at fast food as we both have a variety of medical conditions and we know what we can eat there and it is cheap. Ahead of time we looked for someplace to stop before our usual BK location. Husband found a McD on the south side of the Interstate. When we got there the GPS sent us off at the correct exit and at the bottom of the ramp told us to turn right (north). I told husband to go left. He listened to the GPS. Sent us 2 blocks north, then had us turn right and then another right turn. Now on street parallel to road off the Interstate heading back to same. Had us take the road to where it dead ended at the Interstate (raised above) and then make a U-turn. Go back half a block to the back of a small shopping center and go through the shopping center back to the road off the Interstate. It then had us make a left turn – but instead of making that turn where we should have at a traffic light, we now had to do same on a 4 lane main road with no light to help us.
We have had many adventures like this because of stupid GPS directions – really like when it says to turn left and show to turn right or vice versa. Around here people turn onto train tracks as there is a parallel street adjacent to same and the GPS tells them to turn at the wrong point.