It can be a pretty stressful thing to drive around an unfamiliar location looking for somewhere you’ve never been before – how many marriages and friendships have been tested to the limit with the driver getting more and more irate at the amateur map reader sitting next to them?
Surely a GPS or Sat Nav is the answer to everyone’s prayers. I mean, it’s easy, right? All you have to do is to punch in your destination and a polite and knowledgeable voice will direct you there without a moment’s hesitation – and if you go wrong or ignore the instructions they simply re-route and find an alternative without shouting, huffing, puffing or slamming the car door when you eventually stop.
Unfortunately even the GPS can get it wrong sometimes, and not only a little bit wrong but wrong in a big way – and who can the driver blame when that happens? Not the amateur map reader that’s for sure – they can only blame themselves for being silly enough to put all of their blind faith into their GPS.
Don’t get me wrong, GPS are great but do try to use a little common sense too!
Here are a few stories which help to prove my point.
1 – You’d think a bus driver would be smart enough to trust his own instincts over those of a GPS but it ain’t necessarily so. A bus driver with a load of high school girls followed the instructions to the letter and got his bus well and truly wedged beneath a bridge at Washington Park Arboretum back in 2008. You’d think he would have realized that he was never going to fit a 12’ high bus under a 9’ high bridge . . . even if he let the tires down a little . . . but no, he ploughed on regardless. The GPS said go under the bridge so under the bridge he went. So, who was to blame – well, the GPS of course.
2 – It would appear that GPS don’t fare much better in Australia than they do in the US. A car of Japanese tourists from Tokyo believed their trusty Sat Nav when it instructed them to cruise along the channel route between two islands, fortunately it was low tide but unfortunately they still got stuck. Apparently the GPS said that it would be fine and it would find them a road soon if they just carried on . . . so they did.
3 – GPS are getting people into trouble all across the globe. A lady driver in the UK chose to believe her Sat Nav system over the countless warning signs as she drives happily by and straight into a river which was badly swollen due to torrential flooding. Not only did she get well and truly swamped but her car was carried a few hundred feet along with the water downstream – a scary prospect and no mistake. Fortunately the driver was unhurt but the same could not be said for her very expensive sports car which took more than a week to rescue – it was totally submerged.
Okay, these are horror stories but the moral is, by all means tap your destination into your GPS but don’t forget to take notice of those other little warning signs which are in the real world – it’s also a good idea to have a map of the area handy as well just in case.
Don’t go driving round and round looking for the best Los Angeles Dodge dealer, just check out http://mcpeeksdodge.com and put the address into your GPS – but remember to keep your wits about you too.
