GPS Holiday Puzzler
Mon Dec 24, 2007 4:17PM EST
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I heard a great story yesterday. My daughter's boyfriend was helping his mom move from Florida to Maine. For the occasion, they'd bought a GPS. Driving a 16-foot van and a pulling a car on a trailer, they started up I-95 listening to the soothing voice of the GPS. By nightfall, they found themselves somewhere in Georgia, more than 100 miles off track, on roads too small for safety.
Can you guess what happened? (Boy, do I wish there was a way to do a "reveal" right now.) I'm sure many of you tech genius types may have guessed already.
Answer: The GPS was set to avoid toll roads. It's one of the many personal options (shortest route, scenic route) that you can specify on your device.
Now for the real question: Have you ever made a dumb GPS move?
(Mine? I circled a snowy, blizzard-y loop for 30 minutes one night until I realized that the GPS was sending me in a cruel loopty-loop because it had no idea about the street I needed to find.)
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2 Posted by super_dave_1984 on Wed Dec 26, 2007 9:50AM EST Report Abuse
Here's a thought. Don't put all your eggs in the GPS basket. Pick up a road atlas also. If you don't have a backup plan and you rely on gadgets that have proven to be not as reliable as you think, you deserve what you get. Plan your route before you leave the driveway. On paper. Besides, if the GPS craps out, which electronic gadgets do now and then, the good old Road Atlas will still work.
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3 Posted by ytech_robinraskin on Wed Dec 26, 2007 2:02PM EST Report Abuse
Super_Dave. Check out the NPR newsreport today. GPS are flying off of the shelves but people fall into 2 categories when it comes to use. The first is those who will use GPS to enhance their understanding of where they are. THe second is the group that will use it as a crutch and totally rely on it. The story also discusses some of the problems we'll face as advertisers vie for a listing in the GPS local services databases.
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4 Posted by utahred on Wed Dec 26, 2007 5:54PM EST Report Abuse
I've been using a GPS device for over a year but don't completely rely on it. GPS maps are not up to date, so if the highway has changed, the GPS will get you lost trying to follow the currently loaded map. It is imperative that you have good maps handy and have a rough idea of where you are. Then, GPS directions can be checked against reality. Where I really find the GPS invaluable, is in a strange city. Punch in the address of your destination and relax a bit. I don't carry city maps for every place I plan to visit. With my GPS I don't need them it's right 99% of the time.
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5 Posted by virgin_wings2001 on Fri Dec 28, 2007 2:27PM EST Report Abuse
I don't bother with GPS. Its one of those gadgets I don't want to take a risk on. Instead, I Google a map or use Yahoo! maps and take along an Atlas. GPS may be the navigation of the future, but my future will continue to be paper until all the bugs get worked out.
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1 Posted by amsurv on Mon Dec 24, 2007 5:53PM EST Report Abuse
I recently had a weird thing happen to me with my car units. On my recent road trip, just as I was about to exit the beltway in Memphis, the car unit stopped working. Magellan was kind enough to give me a handheld unit, so I quickly turned it on, thinking that the built-in car unit was on the fritz. Not so. The outage on both units lasted for more than a hour. As surveyors, we’ve dealt with “local attraction” on compass needles, and this appeared to me to be a wide-area interference problem. Blizard told about an incident in San Diego where an experiment by Navy users accidentally blocked the L1 signal for a ten-mile radius. The medical paging system was knocked out, and general aviation noticed it, but the source was quickly located and turned off. And even though today’s weak signals will be strengthened with the next-gen satellites, meaning that GNSS will work better and in more places, this year’s ION President, John Lavrakas, reminded the audience that GPS jammers can be purchased on eBay.