GPS Reality Check

Great post!

First meaning of a GPS, was to show you where you are. Getting it to lead you from one point to another, was added extra. Free extra. And we get people to complain?

It always reminds me of that stupîd Blonde joke (the joke's the stupid one, not any blonde), where two of them get to an underpass of seven feet.

The first one says "We got a table on the roof of the car, that's gotta be more than seven feet".

The other one responds "Come on, let's do it - I don't see a cop anywhere"...

This was discussed in topic about idiots, who ended in the lake or middle of forest "because gps told mi to do it".
Let's face it. There is nothing we can do about it. There are morons who make commercials about gps for other morons to believe. The former are promising that gps makes you free from thinking and the latter are firmly believing in it.

But it is not only gps. If you can successfully sue McDonalds for spilling hot cafe on yourself than why you expect more brains with gps use?

So don't expect that your post will be understand by too many "casual gps users" Other than that, what you said is true.

It's been said many times before that it is a device only and that people have to use their brain sometimes. It is truly amazing how many people do not know how to think for themselves and then complain "the gps doesn't know what I want".

So true

Oh ya Welcome to the Factory

Yah, blonds are expected to follow a GPS to the end of the earth and maybe beyond but a few will end the route, marry, and have little blonds for us to laugh about in the future.

Right on

GPS units should not replace your brain. Pretty much every route it maps locally is no where near the best/fastest way.

They are a great convenience for things like going where you've never been, finding new restaurants/places of business etc and the like.

But nothing will ever replace you being in control.

Happy Monday!

Right to the point. Enough said.

Great comment. It reminded me of that stupid tv commercial with the idiot following the wrong directions from his gps because the satellite "shorted out". Finally he hits the brakes before he drives off the cliff.

Last week I had to go visit someone and I punched the address in my Garmin. It quickly took me there and the route was great. When I got to my friend's street however, it was marking the house number about half a block away from where it actually was. But I got eyes and I can read the house numbers on the mail boxes, so I got there and re-marked the house, even though the software insists that's not the number

As you said, it is good to get somewhere you don't know (and back!), but always use your common sense. The device is not perfect.

and very true!

I agree with you on what you said. Gps in made to take you from point A to point B. nothing else. Anything else is extra.

GPS can be down right stupid sometimes though.

Last week I used my TomTom GPS in an unfamiliar area, and the TT GPS had me go into a closed neighborhood for 1.2 miles just to be able to make a u-turn...

GPS is another "electronic" device that some people "depend" on. Heaven forbid if the battery goes dead or the unit dies while they are on a roadtrip. They would be lost forever.

Common sense has to be used as well. Go old school....road atlas, just in case. Just make sure you know how to read it.

I have none of these problems with my GPS. I guess I am lucky!

I drive back and fourth between NY & FL. When going through the Washington DC area there are a lot of new roads in place.
If I listen to my GPS it would put me into the middle of the city instead of the beltway.
Better to have the little lady keep saying (re calculating) than go that way. After a while she gets the message and gets back with the program.
GPSs are nice, but you have to use your brain once in a while. If you are going someplace that you know you will have to stay on a highway for a while and the GPS tells you to get off on some side road, think before you do it.

Ron White comes to mind (probably a dozen before him as well), "You can't fix stupid."

Even duct tape can't fix stupid.

For me, my GPS is only a toy that produces entertainment on trips and occasionally useful information. Lucky, so far, that it hasn't gotten me into trouble!

or unobservant.

Great, right on, I guess some think that the GPS will drive their car also.

Please don't anyone tell my wife about this forum. She'll accuse me of making those comments about her

I didn't mean to get on such a diatribe, but after a weekend of lurking on forums reading posts I just had to get that out of me in a constructive way. I hate hijacking threads, or unloading on people directly when they are just trying to get some help (stupid or not).

This way I got to let it all out without offending anyone directly.

Wasn't there a case years ago about some woman driving a motor home and went to make some coffee after putting the vehicle in "cruise control"? I think she went off the road and tried to sue the company. I guess she got it confused with "auto-pilot"

Where was the rest of the crew ? On the upper deck ? Thanos, you made my day - now I can face the pile of work on my desk. Thanks !

found errors in my garmin, usually when I travel long distances I have Delorme topo/street atlas and Microsoft streets and trips, do the trip in both to see how they route, had some real funny routing in streets and trips.

I am not sure but I think many of the responses are missing the point of the original post. I read it as a critique of people who have exaggerated expectations of the device.

Just check the forum topics and you will find repeated comments about how a new subdivision STILL isn't in the latest map update, or how a $200 GPS unit should come with FREE map updates for life, or how the GPS tells me to turn right when I know I'm supposed to turn left!

I think many of the criticisms of GPS units on this site reflect unrealistic expectations of the user rather than fundamental flaws in the product. The GPS is a relatively complex electronic tool that we expect to perform multiple tasks without errors. Compare this to a hammer - a relatively simple tool that has remained unchanged for decades... yet my hammer STILL bends the nails when I use it!

I enjoyed the original post because it "hit the nail right on the head". In many cases it is the tool on the other end of the hammer that is at fault.

I've been hearing variations of that story for over 25 years, always with some different person being the alleged "stupid driver".

Snopes has compiled a list of these stories, including the one you wrote of:
http://www.snopes.com/autos/techno/cruise.asp

you did a fine job.

GPS is a great tool but thats all. And like any other tool it is only as good as the person using it!

(But i saw the guy on TV build his whole house with this multibit screwdriver from K-Tel.) LMAO!

That's the reason they now have those 'stupid' disclaimers in the manuals, i.,e. "You can't take a shower while the vehicle is set in cruise control mode.", "Caution this cup may contain hot liquid (dumba$$)", etc.

I played 'stupid' a couple weekends back. Living on Long Island, we often get nationwide commercials on TV for eateries that just don't make it in NY. A friend of mine and I wanted to hit Cracker Barrel. So I fire up the GPS, and search for the nearest one, 2 hours down Jersey way. Well 'stupid' me didn't load the POI file. I trusted Garmin (OK, the floor is open for prods...) to route me to the correct one. I ended up getting routed to some woods 2 hours away from my house. I recycled the unit (rebooted), and then it steered me to 'John's Cracker Barrel', not 'Cracker Barrel Old Time Store'. Called a friend who went online to verify the next one in the Garmin list was real. 3 hours after leaving home, we were eating.

Next stop, Dairy Queen for dessert. Head homeward while doing it, and use the POI file for this baby. Get to the Woodbridge Center Mall, and get pointed to the parking lot. No DQ there, just pavement.... Maybe it's in the food court? Not wanting to get out of the car on another wild goose chase, we drove north another 15 minutes to the next DQ in line and got our blizzards.

Lesson learned: Check the web before leaving home (if possible). As was said earlier, good judgment is the better part of common sense. It was a good (and safe) day overall, and I learned a bit during a non-critical time about the idiosyncrasies of the Nuvis. At least it didn't send me through a lake....

You weren't being stupid at all in my opinion. Forgetful maybe, but by no means stupid.

Stupid would have been coming on here and claiming your GPS should have known that you needed the POI file, found it for you, and magically loaded the POI file across time and space.

I'm old, grey headed and drink way to much. I've had my fair share of times I wanted to blame device and not the navigator

you need to remember POI are fluid new ones come online and other go offline, I was driving back to Iowa and wanted to stop in rock springs wy for Popeye's they had one there the last time I went through 4 years ago, the poi in my garmin said it was there, but lo and behold it was gone, if I had check the popeye's site I would have know it was gone.