

If your GPS device told you to drive off a cliff, would you do it? - rglovejoy
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120578983252543135.html?mod=hpp_us_autos

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icky
I work in this industry.

The article mentioned trucks being sent into residential areas (or through
tunnels/bridges that weren't meant for them). Google maps doesn't know what
type of vehicle you're driving, but if you bought a vehicle with a navigation
device factory-installed, then (at least for newer models), it does know, and
any decent (and recent!) in-vehicle device won't send, for example, a
commercial truck through a road not classed for it.

You also (again, with any sane, recent device) won't be routed through unpaved
or construction roads. The device might not even be loaded with those non-
routes.

Another consideration is, whether the maps were installed in the factory, or
whether the device goes online to pull more recent maps (the obvious trade-
offs apply), real road conditions, lane closures, detours, etc., happen faster
and more ephemerally than any data provider can or will update their source
data.

When driving, always use your eyes and your brain. No device, however useful
as an aide to navigation, can substitute for them.

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xlnt
Are you implying the article might have cherry picked examples to be more
sensationalist?

~~~
icky
No, these are real issues, but the navigation device market is highly
competitive, and a lot of these things have been getting fixed very fast in
newer models.

I repeat the caveat to always trust your own eyes and brain over any machine.

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wallflower
My brother-in-law calls his Garmin "the girlfriend" Sometimes she is right and
sometimes he has to ignore her sexy British accented commands. "Recalculating
coordinates"

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tlrobinson
One of my friends _always_ follows his GPS navigation system, even if he knows
it's wrong.

In particular, there's this one point on a freeway where the freeway signs
clearly indicate the correct route, but his GPS always tells him something
else. Without fail, he follows the GPS directions, which tell him to exit the
freeway and almost immediately get back on the freeway.

It drives me _nuts_.

~~~
cglee
Just wondering, did he receive very high marks in school?

~~~
icky
Almost certainly so, considering his tendency towards unthinking obedience...
;)

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Zak
I had a GPS tell me to drive through a field in rural Germany once. Evidently,
the two ruts going through the field were, technically a road and did get me
where I was going.

I've also had various GPS units tell me to drive off the side of bridges, in
to concrete walls and on train tracks.

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mattmaroon
That depends, is my wife nagging at me at the time?

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thomasswift
haha the office (us), when they drive into the lake...

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yangyang42
uh, no. i would not do it.

