Officials remind drivers to be prepared after family rescued from snow

 

It's the GPS fault again.

It's the GPS fault again.

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I never get lost, but I do explore new territory every now and then.

GPS

Does not eliminate using the grey matter between your ears.

Having said that, I don't know if this could happen to me or not since I also have my Garmin set for fastest route.
Though if it directed me off a travelled main road, especially in winter I would question it.

But I've had some bad experiences with that where the GPS had me go off the main highway and go through a town with traffic lights and traffic.
Reason was that this cut off the longer distance in a long sweep around this town. This happened two more times on that route, but I just ignored the GPS.

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Nuvi 2797LMT, DriveSmart 50 LMT-HD, Using Windows 10. DashCam A108C with GPS.

Officials Remind Drivers To Be Prepared After Family Rescued

Good situational awareness is not native to everybody.

While I don't know if it would have made a difference in this case, when I make longer road trips, I will typically use my Garmin DriveLuxe 51 LMT-S AND Google Maps on a smartphone simultaneously. I make the front seat passenger serve as the Navigator. I advise them to compare the routes from each device and try to determine why there are discrepancies. Simply using that method alone has saved during some trips.

While I have no idea if the above method would have helped in the case of the tragedy featured, at some point you would hope that common sense would kick in, but sometimes it doesn't.

Every so often there will be stories about people not getting enough fuel and then running out in some very remote areas that have no cell phone coverage (or the driver doesn't carry a power cord, etc.)

I think the article is

I think the article is wrong, or misquoted. If you take a look on BaseCamp and Google, the road they were found on, near Belmear Mtn is far out in the sticks, it's unbelievable that a GPS would have take them that way. Unless the dumbasses actually chose Shortest route.

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Frank DriveSmart55 37.322760, -79.511267

Easy

It is always easy to blame the gps. but it can only do what is programed into it. It is the drivers responsibly to ensure the vehicle and passengers are ready for the trip as well.

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johnm405 660 & MSS&T