Accident after following GPS

LOL.........You mean I ACTUALLY HAVE a BRAIN?! WHERE?? (LOL)

In my household, I'm the one who LOVES to drive. My hubby loves to do the navigating duties. We tested the Nuvi 880 on a short run to Vermont and back, before the real test next month when we drive back to south Alabama. He has a pocket full of maps and his road atlas as a check, but he is more comfortable these days with the GPS directions. There is NO WAY we could end up on a railroad track, be it day or night.

Personally, I've always wanted to do something like the old sports car road rallies, or put in your estimated run time and pass check points, to see which driving team would come closest to their projected finish time. Do they even DO that sort of thing any more? It would make a great contest, methinks, more people could participate. You could report in at your waypoints using a cell phone and by taking a picture using your cell phone camera you could verify your presence there with command central.....or so it seems to me.

Wouldn't that make a lovely contest!!!

ive done it once. i turned the wrong way onto a 3 lane one way road in rush hour traffic. i managed to convert it into a sweeping left hand turn which is why i didnt cause a 40 car pileup. all on the instructions of my beloved GPS.

Last week, I followed the GPS until I was told to turn on a cross street. The two streets are crossed in structure of overpass/underpass. No access available to each other (only to turn around the whole block). If I was that dumb following the GPS made that turn.

Sad but true. Too many people blindly follow what a machine tells them with sometimes tragic circumstances.

I am just amazed they were able to not only find the GPS in the store to purchase it but were also able to navigate on their own to the cashier. Hmm.. maybe I am giving them too much credit. Better check the accident reports to see if they ran into an inventory shelf while following a fellow customers obscure directions.

that is truly sad and tragic.Ppl must use commom sense GPs or no GPs

Having just completed my first cross-country trip with GPS, I can understand how something similar can happen.

Imagine that you have been driving on interstates for 10 or 12 hours with only a few short stops at rest areas. All day the GPS has successfully guided you through several large cities and interstate changes with dozens of "keep left", "keep right", "take exit 15 right in 2 miles" instructions that have been absolutely correct.

Then, at the bottom of that exit ramp there is a red light, but no cars in front of you, and the GPS says "turn left on AAA street." You have been hypnotized into a false sense of security of by the GPS voice, and you make the turn without stopping for the light. And because it's an underpass, you can't see the traffic coming from your left until it is too late.

The same thing happens to drivers who don't have a GPS coming off the interstate after too many hours behind the wheel. Fatigue is the real problem. But GPS hypnosis can be a contributing factor. Don't be so sure that it can't happen to you, because it can.

And yes, I did stop at the red light. But my reaction time was delayed enough to make me notice that my brain had been stuck in GPS mode.

I can picture "Karen Garmin" and "Susan TomTom" arguing on the best route: you go Susan's way and get lost, Karen* says "I told you so" and Susan spends the rest of the trip skulking...

Simon

* Karen is right because I own a Garmin, but it's completly arbitrary as I've never tried a TomTom.

That's the first thing I thought of when I read this thread. Obviously enough Dunderheads out there to make it true.

That's funny - even funnier (or is it ironic?) is that just this past week, a driver using a GPS ignored road signs of a dead end, drove into a lake.

http://www.gpsdaily.com/reports/Polish_driver_follows_GPS_di...

Just as they now put warnings on lawn mowers to not stick your hands or feet under them while running (thanks to drunk college boys picking a push mower up to "mow" the hedges years ago,) I'm waiting for them to put warnings on GPS devices saying to not use them for navigation.

"This is not a navigation device. To be used in seeking out interesting people on POIFactory web sites for recreational and camaraderie purposes only."

Finally, some "real" product warning labels: http://www.rinkworks.com/said/warnings.shtml What's really sad is that many of these exist due to lawsuits. Others exist because numerous customers complained to the respective companies/organizations...

Idiot !

What else can one say about it ?

Tim

I turned onto a 6 lane one way road in Brooklyn, NY and had to do a quick u-turn in order to avoid the oncoming stream of cars. This was under the direction of my map-reading wife. (prior to GPS availability) Things happen.

LOL! Good one!

Common sense is often ignored.

The other day I was following the instructions and my C340 ended up sending me to a restricted area, where a Homeland Security guy with a very large gun made me turn around. I didn't try the "My GPS told me to go this way out on him" since he didn't look like he had much of a sense of humor.