Because the gps told me (trucks, sell, police, USA)

[victimofGM]

Woman drives on railroad tracks because GPS told her to, police say

Woman found driving on the train tracks for miles because her gps told her to go that way. I left the title a bit vague because it can be used for other stories about people blindly obeying their gps and getting into trouble.

[unit731]

Of course no one knows IF the GPS directed woman onto tracks.

None of the GPS are perfect.

Note: There are two companies that actually make and sell the maps. Tele Atlas and Navteq.
There may be more now.

Many/some use maps. Road maps. Municipal maps. The map companies don't necessarily drive on the roads that they have mapped.

I had one GPS send me into a rural area where there was a road at one time. But now had trees growing up in the road in the wooded area. Was a road there at one time. Not now. And to make matters worse. As I tried to avoid this abandoned road the GPS kept directing me back to this abandoned road.

Driving across country one time the GPS placed me onto a dirt road for about a mile or two. Overall distance was a mile or two longer if I stayed on paved road and drove through the town. Just a simple mistake.

Some common sense is needed. If the GPS has you turn in to a corn field - well maybe you should avoid that and keep going.

[elnina]

Originally Posted by victimofGM

Woman drives on railroad tracks because GPS told her to, police say

Woman found driving on the train tracks for miles because her gps told her to go that way. I left the title a bit vague because it can be used for other stories about people blindly obeying their gps and getting into trouble.

Poor woman didn't had any common sense...

[burdell]

I love these GPS stories as much as I enjoy watching the videos of people doing things like walking into a fountain at the mall while engrossed with their phones.

[jackmccullough]

There's a very tight, narrow, curvy pass through the mountains here in Vermont called Smugglers' Notch. Every year it seems there are a couple of semi trucks that get stuck there, even though there are signs for miles in advance that trucks aren't able to get through. Apparently they read their maps or they follow their GPS and they ignore the signs.

I think they were going to increase the fine to a thousand dollars as an encouragement to not be stupid.

https://youtu.be/OMb9v9hkUi4

[SoHoVe]

Originally Posted by burdell

I love these GPS stories as much as I enjoy watching the videos of people doing things like walking into a fountain at the mall while engrossed with their phones.

These stories while remarkable aren't entertaining at all when they involve the elderly or people who don't survive their mistake. This can be a pretty significant problem in remote areas with extreme climates.

I really feel the manufacturers and retailers of these products should be doing more to increase awareness of their products safe use and limitations.

[oceangaia]

You can't fix stupid.


I'll bet money the GPS didn't tell her to drive on the tracks. Surely people have tried to reproduce it. Much more likely she misread the GPS. A GPS will say "turn right, now" as you are approaching the last few yards to the intersection and it is understood by anyone with any common sense that it means turn right at the immediately upcoming road not instantaneously veer right over the curb and across the sidewalk and into a tree.

[Jezer]

GPS needs to be operated in conjunction with a properly functioning brain. This can be where the system sometimes breaks down, as witnessed by me when someone asked mefor directions when he had chosen the wrong destination with the same name in the UK, and was 140 miles away.

In the early days of GPS I hired one to see what it was like on a trip to Rouen in Northern France.

A couple of times it tried to get me to drive across a non existent bridge across the main river that runs up from Paris, a few miles out of town, so if you will forgive the pun, it was trying to drive me in Seine!

[Jonathan Ashbeck]

That's bizarre

[rbohm]

the only thing i use electronic maps for these days is to find an address, and not to get directions to said address. i have a rand mcnally for that if i need it.