Getting lost with a GPS? Unfortunately, yes
Then again, nothing about our evening ride back to San Francisco was turning out as expected, a source of no small irritation to my increasingly irritated wife.
Let me back up.
When it comes to finding my way, I'm no Daniel Boone, but I'm not a complete dork, either. Inside the family, there's no small difference of opinion about that claim. For the sake of matrimonial harmony, I'll leave it at that. (Though for the record: my wife's navigational prowess will hardly ever be confused with that of either Lewis or Clark.) But let's not quibble about the clear conclusion: Chez Cooper was a prime candidate for some off-the-shelf technology help.
On vacations, I've rented cars with built-in global positioning systems units on several occasions. No complaints with the experience. So over the holidays, I decided to surprise my better half with a Garmin GPS.
That's when the fun really began.
Garmin sells a simple and reliable device. Unfortunately, it doesn't relieve you of the responsibility for using your brain. A certain somebody (no names, here) had programmed the device to calculate the route based on the shortest route. As I was about to discover, the shortest route did not come close to approximating the shortest time.
The Sunday evening traffic on Interstate 80 was particularly heavy as it coincided with the end of the Christmas-New Year's break. Many vacationers returning to San Francisco from Lake Tahoe added to the congestion as I pointed my car south upon leaving Folsom, a city about 120 miles away from San Francisco.
With everyone in the car dozing quietly, the Nuvi instructed me to exit the highway long before we were scheduled to reach the bridge entrance to the city. That seemed odd. Our plan was to first stop in Oakland to drop off a friend, who had spent the day with us.
"Hey, the Nuvi knows," I said to myself. "And I'm not going to second guess my co-pilot."
That opinion was not fully shared by the backseat drivers in the car, who, by this time, had stirred from their slumber. Why was I getting off at the wrong exit, they wanted to know. "Do you know where you're going?"
It's not the wrong exit, I said. "It's a shortcut that the GPS calculated. Trust me."
My curt response cost me dearly after the "shortcut" turned into a 10-mile-long stop-and-go parking lot. I can't blame the Nuvi for that one. In time, the traffic let up and we were back on our way toward our destination. Before long, the sign for Oakland appeared up ahead.
But the Nuvi, still in shortcut mode, ignored the turnoff. Then so did I.
"What are you doing?" my wife asked in a tone usually reserved for those special occasions where yours truly screws up big time.
I rolled my eyes.
"Relax, the Nuvi knows what it's doing. Let's just follow the route. OK?"
Ever fantasize about having the ability to wind back the clock and retract some of the more egregiously dumb statements you've ever uttered? This was one of those times. A few minutes later the Nuvi had us rolling through pitch black country roads that rose and fell in rhythm with the undulating terrain of Northern California.
We had no idea where we had landed, other than that it was in the wrong place. Still, the Nuvi was confidently talking up a storm. Turn left here, turn right there--no crisis of confidence on the part of the GPS.
My wife, on the other hand, was having a royal fit. When the road narrowed to a single car's width and we were forced to navigate a series of 90-degree turns above an escarpment, she dug her nails into my arm.
"The GPS is taking us in the opposite direction," she said. "Can you understand that?"
I nodded. This time I kept my big mouth shut. The road--and I'm being charitable by describing it as such--meandered for miles with nary a sign of civilization. We did come across a couple of very surprised cows, who scattered without much persuasion.
The country road eventually hooked up with the Oakland hills and the rest of the journey proved uneventful, ignoring the inevitable lecture my wife delivered after we dropped off our friend at her house.
For the record, though, the Nuvi did know where it was heading. It just took its sweet time getting there. .
Charles Cooper has covered technology and business for more than 25 years. Before joining CNET News, he worked at the Associated Press, Computer & Software News, Computer Shopper, PC Week, and ZDNet. E-mail Charlie. 
I have checked, and the online map services give the same directions.
They also think that a sewer right of way near my home is a road.
The GPS, instead of sending us via a major highway, decided instead to send us on the most twisty, turny, narrow road I've ever been on in my life. The occasional house and non-stop countryside, punctuated only by sheer drops off the side of the road.
The missus, who was driving, was literally in hysterics by the end of this hour long part of the drive, not least because of the loose gravel road and its lack of barriers on the sides, but also because of the idiot in the 4x4 who decided to tailgate us at the speed limit, while we were constantly skidding on the gravel surface, with nowhere to pull over and literally facing one hell of a drop down the side of a very steep hill.
You can imagine our happiness at reaching the end of this particular road, only to be told to drive down another very similar looking road, kindly marked "4 Wheel Drives Only" (or similar), that would take another hour or two to drive down.
Being that we weren't driving a 4 wheeler, we decided to program the GPS in to take the nearest road, which just so happened to be a major highway. My wife, in tears by that point, was literally over the moon (NOT!) to be told that we'd then have to back track about 40 minutes back down the road we'd just been desperate to get off.
From that point on, we knew the 'paved roads' option didn't work and that the GPS wasn't to be trusted.
eventually no matter what route you take your gonna get there. hell i could think of no less that 8 ways to get to my old high school and it was only a mile from my house.
I am using a GPS since 1998 (yeah there where Fishfinder with a different Map then) and yes I got onto back country roads with them once in awhile, but now with TMC and intelligent Road assistance even a 5 year old could and will use these devices.
So get use to it.
TJ
Look folks, a GPS is nothing more than a passenger studying a map. S/He might say something like "hey, this road looks interesting and cuts straight to where we're going", but it's up to the driver to decide to trust that advice or not. He had the option to keep going and not take that first off ramp, in which case the Garmin would have uttered that phrase ("recalculating route ...") and found a more typical "frequently traveled" path.
People need to start learning to accept responsibilities for their own actions. The GPS didn't make you get lost (in more than one way - you got there following it's directions didn't you??), you got lost on your own (again, not really since you got there) - despite having someone tell you where to go. It's more accurate to say you *FELT* lost with the GPS because you didn't know the path it was taking you down, but you were trusting it anyway. That's not the GPS's fault!
Sat Nav units are not the salvation of the driver. they are a tool like any other and should only be used with a certain amount of common sense installed in the driver themselves.
The thing that most proves the point of GPS to me -- When I drove into DC last year, the Nuvi took me directly to my hotel near Dupont Circle. No missed turns, no being lost, late afternoon traffic.
You can also use them as directory assistance for phone numbers, find businesses, how far is it to the next gas station, etc.
The most important thing to remember is it depends on how current the map is. As far as finding businesses, I believe they have to pay to be listed. There may be a Ruby Tuesday staring you in the face but not on the GPS - maybe it was not there at mapping time or maybe they did not pay to be listed.
When taking a trip that is a long drive with a late arrival, I double check with yahoo or mapquest. If those directions are different than the Nuvi, I print them out. That way, when I am tired and the Nuvi might fail me, I have a backup.
GPS devices are not perfect and do require some common sense, but they sure beat the old way of using maps or getting LOST.
Looking at your overall route is a driver responsibility. Would you join a team at work where, each day or even each hour, your boss came by and told you what you were doing for the next forty-five minutes? If you're in the military, the answer is "sir, yes sir". If you're not... you're probably used to getting a nice overview of the basic plot and the important (way)points.
I wouldn't place blame on the GPS unit as much as the unfortunate author. Bravo for illustrating the folly without your own experience, though, that takes courage.
-R
With this said...the funnest part of the GPS we found was the pronunciation of street names. Some were so funny, we couldn't help but LOL. However, the funniest was when we were going down a few FM roads in New Braunfels, Texas (FM roads are Farm to Market)...and, the GPS kept saying, "Federation of Micronesia." I was amazed that the Mio took us from Texas to Micronesia in less than a day! :)
I have gotten "lost" with a GPS when I tried to overanalyze what the unit was telling me to do. But I agree with the other posters---using a bit of common sense helps a lot.
Just because the Nuvi says the dirt road/country road/canal road is the shortest route, shouldn't replace anyone's common sense. That's why you have the option to do a route overview and look at the map of where you are going.
I had been using Verizon's GPS system on my cell phone, and it frankly does a much better job, though it isn't as pretty.
Disclaimer: I myself am directionally challenged and sometimes it gets very annoying. A few years back my father was in the passenger seat giving me directions through his home town (at noon I should state, once he did this well after dark) and he would say things like "turn north at the next intersection". I would nearly freak - which way is north? I know north and south in my home town, but had no idea there.
Directionally challenged is not brain dead though - if someone (or some THING) tells me to turn against traffic on a one way street for example, they would be "recalculating" that route in the next block.
- by Kalvos January 19, 2009 8:06 AM PST
- I always tell folks who are visiting us to follow my directions and NOT rely on Google maps, Mapquest, GPS units, etc. We're easy to find, but nearby roads that end up on Internet maps and GPS units are not usable in winter. The problem isn't the maps so much as the turn-by-turn directions that transform normally alert brains into geographical mush. One Google entry travels a Class 3 road that only snow machines use; my Tomtom would take me down a side road better suited for skiing; Mapquest is helpless with roads that have confusing names, such "Route 12 South" going in either direction.
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