Big story in today's paper are these three women who, new to town, in a rental car and relying on the car's GPS, drove into the Mercer Slough. Of course, it was night, dark, and in an area they were unfamiliar, still they were having a hard time explaining to police how the car ended up floating in the river ...
GPS are not infallible
- Thread starter PurpleLady
- Start date
This is definitely true. Even in well mapped out locations, GPSs can act all weird. I remember my GPS tweaking out when I was driving through DC. Since DC has so many highways packed so closely together, the GPS can get easily confused and has a hard time determining which highway you are on.
You try your best to idiot-proof things, but they just keep making better idiots faster than you can keep up. If you "turn left NOW" into the river, instead onto the bridge 5 yards up the road, you deserve whatever you get.
Shouldn't try and help people like that, it's just Nature throwing a little chlorine in the gene pool from time to time!
Shouldn't try and help people like that, it's just Nature throwing a little chlorine in the gene pool from time to time!
I often read complaints about dark roads, but every car I've driven had at least two big bright lights mounted on the front. You just have to look out the windshield, even if it means you'll miss a turn and have to "re-compute" a modified route.
I've noticed late model car radios are a lot harder to operate completely by feel than the old five button/two knob radios in the sixties and seventies. Add things like a GPS interface and some of the climate control fuel consumption monitors and cabin climate control interfaces I've seen and I'm wondering how there's supposed to be enough driver attention left to monitor the environment around the vehicle.
I've noticed late model car radios are a lot harder to operate completely by feel than the old five button/two knob radios in the sixties and seventies. Add things like a GPS interface and some of the climate control fuel consumption monitors and cabin climate control interfaces I've seen and I'm wondering how there's supposed to be enough driver attention left to monitor the environment around the vehicle.
The same rule that applies to ALL other technology also applies to GPS-navigators: that it's there doesn't mean you can shut down your brain!
You, in fact, need to THINK before acting on ANY information you get from a piece of machinery.
You, in fact, need to THINK before acting on ANY information you get from a piece of machinery.
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxqHSj7h8BU[/yt]
That's why I love the voice recognition on my Honda. I can say "Temperature 72 degrees" and it understands me. Or "XM Channel 68." Or "What time is it?". It's a fairly good system, though unfortunately it can only find points of interest by category, not by name. So "Find nearest pizza" will work, but "Find nearest cheesecake factory" will not.
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