Driver follows navigation system right to edge of 100 ft drop
 

Interesting... This is one dumb driver. Still gotta watch the road buddy. :p

Driver followed satnav to edge of 100ft drop - Telegraph

That's exactly why I won't buy one for my wife... she already doesn't know how to read a map... something in the car yelling at her to turn in 500 feet (with her horrible depth perception) would land her right in the middle of two large trucks, I'm sure.

Yeah, I've always wondered about the logic in those route-finding programs ever since the time I tried (just out of curiousity) to see what it would give me as the best route from my home (a ways south of Reno) to San Jose. Instead of the direct and obvious route (395 South to Calif 88) It told me to drive half an hour north and get on I80 west, thus adding at least 50 miles and an hour to the trip.

I use google maps/directions. I only like my GPS with a passenger.

Tried one myself a few months ago also on a long trip.

Got on the freeway and set the cruise control.
The satnav is silent since I am now on the freeway and will be for about an hour or so. Naturally after a while I forgot it was even there.

About fifty minutes later this voice tells me:
"Turn left at the next off ramp"

Scared the living daylights out of me !

Pete.

:thumbup:

I haven't yet felt that I need a navigator. I usually print a map from Google maps or some other map provider before going AND if I'm meeting someone I'll ask them what is the best way as they know the road conditions locally.

I think it was Google Maps that gave the screwed-up directions. Matter of fact, they still do: Here's what they say (with a few steps omitted at the ends, of course)

2. ...left onto US-395 (Going north!)
3. Take the ramp to N Reno 0.6 mi
4. Merge onto US-395 N 8.9 mi
5. Take exit 68 to merge onto I-80 W toward Reno 137 mi
(Like you haven't been IN Reno for the last 10 miles, idiots!)
6. Take the exit onto I-80 W 41.7 mi
7. Take exit 40 to merge onto I-680 S toward Benicia/San Jose 71.4 mi
8. Continue on I-280 N 1.8 mi
....

So I'd be going around three sides of a square, adding 50 miles or so to the trip, running into much more traffic most times of the day...

Your comments toward me are like Christ's comments were a few months ago.

You take the stupid out of the directions, i.e. if you see there's a problem, change your course. Make it "fastest" "least traffic" "shortest" or alter its path.

Only problem I've had with Google maps was that, in the past, it would never find my Father's address.

It's since been corrected, and finds the correct address, but it used to place his home approx 300 miles away.

I think you missed the point, which is that the stupid is built into the directions that Google &c gives. Now if I knew enough about the route to "take the stupid out", I wouldn't need the on-line directions, would I? (As in fact I didn't: I looked them up for amusement.)

Now of course anyone with a decent road map could see that my alternate route is better than the one Google gives, but the point of these navigation things is that they're supposed to make road maps unnecessary.

Google isn't God - it's fallible.

You can manually drag the line to make a new route after searching for your directions, and it will approximate the miles and time as well.

You probably didn't check out the options in the box, either. You can avoid highways, in which case it will take you everywhere possible to a road that is close and not more than 2 lanes.

On top of all that, you got an anomaly, wherein you found a set of directions that isn't optimal, or even ideal for your circumstances. Given the size of Google as an enterprise, and the amount of people who use Google Maps, I doubt they've all seen that same effect. By and Large, Google Maps is a reliable source for route information, and it's updated constantly, to account for instances like your own.

Exactly.

Hard copy maps were never 100% either.

Exercise a little common sense to occasionally question the GPS, esp in new neighborhoods.

The more likely thing to happen is being so distracted a fender bender happens.

One thing that happend to me on my 1st gen GPS is if you miss a turn, I need to pull over at least 45 seconds while it recalculates or else I'll blow turns again and again.

Pretty sure I didn't.

"...was driving home after staying the night with friends..."

Do you REALLY think that he was all there that morning... if you know what I mean (partying the night before... etc etc etc).

Yes, indeed. And wasn't that exactly my point, that these navigation systems sometimes, perhaps often, make some pretty bad choices? And that people who blindly follow the computer-generated directions can wind up going miles out of their way (with consequent waste of fuel & time), or, as in the original post, down the side of a hill on a farm track.

lol, blindly follow, infallible, funny stuff :)

First thing I thought of was the darwin awards, but he walked away it seems.

The new Prius turns the wheel for you if you leave your lane.

How long until they combine it with GPS?
People will hit the cruise control and take a nap.

I think the best possible safety feature would be a big steel spike in the middle of the steering wheel, facing the driver.

Then drivers would pay attention.

That may be a bit much.

I was thinking along similiar lines, if drivers had a bottle of nitroglycerine strapped to their heads it might improve driving habits.