Death by GPS

in Nevada we decided to detour to a small town with a restaurant when we finished eating started the gps and was on our way I knew something was wrong when we went from blacktop to dirt and up a hill ! so we back tracked with the gps turned off back to the highway then turned the gps back on and it had corrected the rout, I have no idea where we would have ended up at had we followed the gps !

over the years which thankfully resulted in only minor inconveniences. I found I can minimize this problem by checking "dirt roads" in the avoidance menu of the GPS.

Still, it pays to be aware of your surroundings and not "blindly" follow GPS directions.

A few years ago I was down in the Red River Gorge in the Daniel Boone National Forest. I hit the Go Home button and it routed me onto a gravel road which shortly came to a dead end. Upon checking a paper map, I found the road continued to where I wanted to go but a bridge had washed out a few years before and was never corrected by Navteq. Needless to say, I now pay attention to where I am being routed and if it seems improbable I now turn around and go another way. I try to stay off of gravel and smaller county roads. Bottom line: Pay attention to your surroundings.

I've had 1 or 2 "mystery" routes myself. Thankfully only 1 or 2. I now usually try to verify my whole route, and if I don't I try to pay close attention to my surroundings & assorted small road signs.

Had a route try to direct me down a dirt road and through a ford (way too deep!) but that turned out to be the result of somehow dirt road avoidance being unchecked, don't know how.

The other is still just a plain mystery. Tried to direct me through someone's back yard and through a field, both of which appeared to have been there since at least the 1940's. Double checked "dirt roads" that time, and it was checked as an avoidance! ???

.. Driver Beware.

On any of my GPS's I always disable dirt roads and ferries. Always set for the fastest route. Also in Canada and the USA it is set to avoid toll roads. In Mexico I set it NOT to avoid toll roads.

That has presented some problems in the past. Being in a totally unfamiliar area to me, the stupid thing tells me to exit a four lane divided highway at the next exit. Not knowing any better I follow the directions. The GPS now takes me through a small town with some traffic as well as a few traffic lights. The GPS then after going through this town proceeds to take me back onto the divided highway I had exited before this town. This happened a few more times, but now being a bit wiser I zoomed out and saw the stupid thing was going to repeat the same thing over again.

Just like the stupid woman some time ago going to visit friends within Belgium who three days later ended up somewhere in the Balkans. Wouldn't you wonder why the signage is not Flemish or French anymore???

I love reading the bad experiences/outcomes of GPS use. Reminds me to primarily use my head, then the device =P

There is a local hotel that has a sign at its exit stating trucks and busses no right turn. All local motorcoach drivers know about this turn and we are told in training NOT to turn right there. The issue is that there is an island in the middle of the road with plants and such and there is not enough room to make the turn. A driver decided to make the turn anyway and immediately got stuck on that curb when the front of the bus went over it. It took a tow truck to get the bus unstuck. The driver said he made the turn because his GPS told him to. He was immediately fired.

A GPS is a tool. It should not replace common sense. That seems to be getting less common though.

The people are morons. Period.

I have found that "fastest route" will avoid bizarre roads chosen when using "shortest route".

This is just another example of common sense not being all that common.

That will add about half a day to your trip if you'd like to get to southern New England for example, from New Jersey.

A couple of days ago there was a report on the TV news of a woman following the GPS directions and she ended up driving down a boat launch ramp. DUUUUUUHHHHH ??????????????

telecomdigest2, it's a good thing I never go in that direction then,

I got into Garmin for travelling with an Emap, and still use my Etrex Vista on trips. A BIG issue is the POI history that took years to update, never corrected and kept sendind me to closed restaurants. It is a LOT better now, with Google maps input. THe Garmins with phone bluetooth do a good job of dialing ahead and that works and the POI's are more current with the frequent map updates. The big plus of a GPS is that it WILL get you there without an internet connection. The Google offline maps are nice, but pretty useless for actual navigation.

My worst experience was in 2009 when I rented a car in Nice France and tried to navigate Monaco with a Nuvi 660. I used Mapsource to plan out a route that had me driving up and down the Corniche roads and looking at apartment buildings! The route was way too long, best when point to point. There should be a scenic roads setting. Today I find that even Rick Steves is way off some times. Best to have waypoints at places that have an active website and learn how to SPELL the names of these places!

Are you saying that you check fastest route and shortest route. I thought they were mutually exclusive and you couldn't check off both at the same time.

I would love to try it but my NUVI won't allow both.

Was she a blond?

Years ago (long before GPS) I took a small vacation in western Maryland using the official state highway map. Used the map to take the obvious exit off the interstate onto a paved 2 lane road with a painted line in the middle. A quarter mile later it narrowed and the line was discontinued. Another quarter mile and it was one lane dirt. Less than a mile later and I came to a ford that was deeper than I wanted to attempt. Fortunately there was a place to turn around. Just because it was on the map didn’t mean I was going to attempt to drive there.

That road was totally inappropriate for a “highway” map. I have always been convinced that mapmakers don’t like empty space on their maps and will go to some effort to fill them. When I happened to meet the official state cartographer at a GIS conference I complained. I suspect it remained on the state map and probably made it to my Garmin.

Nothing beats common sense. These things aren't always accurate, be it GPS or Mapquest. I use both, and my smart phone, but sometimes they try to route you in a totally inappropriate direction. Had my phone try to take me on some convoluted route last night, I ignored what she told me to do and took the route I had already planned out.

Shortest route isn't always shortest or the fastest always fastest.

Sounds like a good tag line.

I agreed with nrbovee...nothing beats common sense.

An oxymoron.

Computers are great but it still pays to know how do some things the old way, batteries do go dead

These deceased folks were likely stuck on escalators in the months before their demise.

I remember the days when gas stations handed out paper maps (guess I just showed my age). I still think Rand McNally makes Road Atlas's though. Not sure how many people buy them these days.

I've seen my nuvi get cranky and randomly reboot and can imagine the zumo crapping out on me on the way home--on unfamiliar roads, out in the middle of nowhere with no data coverage on the phone either.

As a bonus, folded over, it works under the kickstand to keep it from sinking in the dirt.

I find that as soon as you enter a new state on an INTERSTATE highway, stop at the Tourist information. They usually have FREE paper maps of their state available.

An Atlas such as Rand-McNalley's Road Atlas or Trucker's Atlas has almost the same detail maps and you don't need one for every state. That doesn't mean I don't stop and pick them up, but I do so only for my immediate area.

Technology can be very helpful and useful, but putting blind trust into it while discarding common sense or what you see or know in front of you can turn out just fine or very messy!

When all else fails trust a good road map!

One of the reasons I Don't use the GPS in our Ford Escape is the fact that I cannot exclude gravel roads...
The first year of ownership of the Escape we did a trip to Arkansas and took the Nuvi 660 with us, though used the Ford GPS.
The 2 different GPS's acted entirely differently...

Twice we were routed down gravel roads that I swear were Farmer's private driveways..... I could Not Exclude Gravel Roads from the Ford, but could on the Nuvi 660...

Halfway through the trip (after the 2nd gravel driveway incident, necessitating a 20 mile backtrack (via the 660)... We switched back to the 660 for all navigation.... Now we use the 2689...
It's not fun to see the Ford GPS show us off road at many times.

The paper map was made from the same source as the GPS map.

I believe that it is the other way around. Paper maps are used to make GPS maps.
Takes about 1 year to compile paper maps and then however much longer to produce GPS maps.

I believe that both statements are assuming only two forms exist. Both paper maps and GPS maps updates are created from documents that are not yet published, whether on paper or (more likely) in electronics form.

My Garmin does that all the time. Usually it will start on the back streets and then get back on the main highway. Pain in the butt.

Maybe I didn't word that properly. The maps from the Satellite are what the GPS maps are made from. So are the paper maps, they are made from the Satellite data also. So, I can't see how paper maps are any more accurate than the GPS maps, and vice versa.

For the areas covered, the GPS maps contain a lot more detail as they will scale up and down as to what roads are shown. A paper map of a state will not show the local streets in every town, but the GPS will.

So true!

There is no stopping morons. If some people can drive wrong way on highway, and don't stop even when everybody else drive in opposite direction? There is no way to stop idiots. Those, who perfected idiocy even get special award:

http://www.darwinawards.com/

As somebody said: "you can't fix stupid"

Soon it will be illegal for us to actually do the navigation / and take control of our vehicles.

Google Drive and other automatic driving systems are coming!