Our GPS tried to kill us today

[dirty ethel rackham]

Oh my.  That must have been scary.  I have had several GPS mishaps, but none as adventurous as that.  Mostly time-wasting inconveniences.  When I am at home, I have learned to do a pre-check by looking up the route on a couple of mapping websites and comparing them to my GPS before I head out. However, I don't always have the luxury of doing that when we are traveling so I have to rely on it and pray. 

 

ETA:  I don't have  GPS unit per se, but use Google Navigation on my phone.  I know that many GPS only units use old maps and older technology.   I know that Google Navigation gets updated regularly.  But, it still can be wrong, which is why I try to pre-check routes before I head out. 

[Jean in Newcastle]

What is funny is that for the last wedding I had a physical map, a mapquest printout and the GPS.  The GPS got us there with no problem.  This time I couldn't find the map.  And then I was running late and decided to skip mapquest since the GPS had done so well the last time.  Oops.  Bad idea!  Added to which, I only had my brother's home number and I knew that everyone in his house was gone already at the wedding since they had to be there early.  Eek!  A lot was riding on Sally (our name for our GPS since she sounds like Siri's less sarcastic sister) giving us the right directions.  

 

The kids thought the entire thing was a wonderful adventure - the highlight of the trip!  I couldn't enjoy it because I kept thinking things like "I'm glad that we just got new tires.  This route would have blown out our old tires.  I hope that I don't ruin the new tires because if I do, dh will kill me. . . "  Being the responsible party is a real damper on enjoying adventures!  

[Mommy22alyns]

That's why I don't want a GPS!

[Plateau Mama]

I just gotta know, where was this wedding? I want to be aware in ase I ever go there that my GPS my kill me.

[Plateau Mama]

I just gotta know, where was this wedding? I want to be aware in ase I ever go there that my GPS my kill me.

[Plateau Mama]

DP

[Ellie]

wicked, evil, GPS. :cursing:

 

I have learned the hard way that when I'm going somewhere I haven't been before (not uncommon, since I'm not a native Texan), I must print maps from MapQuest, GoogleMaps, and MapsOnUs, *and* engage my GPS. Each one has led me astray (although not with as big an adventure as yours!).

[Vida Winter]

I have concluded this about GPS - when you're in a big city, it works *very* well. I had to get around Denver last year and it took me everywhere I wanted to go, easily. When you're out in a rural area, forget it.

[Candid]

Our GPS hates us, it routinely tries to get us to make a right turn off a 50 foot bridge we cross in our town. Yes, there is a road down below, just no real connection between the bridge and road. 

[shawthorne44]

I find that totally not surprisingly.  Back in the dark ages of Hertz's NeverLost, aka AlwaysLost, it told me to take a left on the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge. 

So, I was quite dubious years later when Google Maps told me to take exit XYZ while in Portland, OR.  It was accurate.

I would contact the company for your system, though.  They keep updating their maps. 

 

 

[Karmiel]

Glad you're okay. I'm sure you've looked up how to adjust the settings by now. 

 

I've been lucky so far with ours. The worst was when it went through a spell of asking us to get off the highway to only have us get right back on. 

[Laura Corin]

No GPS, no smart phone, just maps.  Google maps did assign random suburban street names to all the roads in our village for a bit - weird. 

 

L

[Sobeknofret]

Our gps on our smartphones actually sounds angry when you disobey it. We decided once to take a quick sidetrip on a longer road trip, and it got quite shirty with us when we declined to turn left into a cow. We were all rolling at the really more and more desperate voice telling us to "turn left NOW!" We have a new saying: "It's all fun and games until someone p****s off the GPS!"

[QueenCat]

Wow! We used to have problems on occasion but nothing like that. No problems since we bought a newer one, a few months ago.

[Luanne]

My father drives cars for an auto auction.  He does not trust the GPS to get him where he needs to go.  It has failed him too many times.

[LisaKinVA]

My GPS went through a funky stage, where instead of having me make right turns, it would have me cross the intersection, making a left turn, then ask me to make a U-turn down the road.  o.O

[datgh]

Glad you're okay. I'm sure you've looked up how to adjust the settings by now. 

 

I've been lucky so far with ours. The worst was when it went through a spell of asking us to get off the highway to only have us get right back on. 

 

Your GPS must be related to ours.  It would tell us to get off the highway only to tell us within a half mile to make a "legal U-turn" (which is not always easy in a 30 foot RV) and send us right back up on the same highway in the same direction.  We finally stopped and bought a map.

 

[Sobeknofret]

There's one GPS that uses a squirrel voice for directions. It's great up until it asks you to pull over in random places so it can go look for nuts...

[AmyontheFarm]

My son wants me to buy this GPS.

 

He watches the Knight Rider show.

[FaithManor]

^{I just thought of the plot for a new terminator movie.}

 

^{All of the machines are GPS's and they steer everyone to their deaths. Millions perish. A "terminator" is sent back in time to protect a group of homeschool kids in the 21st century whose mothers made them complete the "Map Skills" books during their elementary years. These children are desperately needed to keep the human race from going extinct because they will be able to read the ancient map, "2013 Rand McNally Atlas" and find the GPS camps so they can be blown up before more innocent lives drive off the Grand Canyon!}

 

^:D 

[Julie Smith]

My Mom has her GPS Set to speak Danish. 

 

That Danish voice sounds so excited. It would say, "Turn right up ahead" with the same expression someone might say, "Shark Attack!".

 

 

[Reflections]

I watched a local news repot last night about how faulty GPS systems can sometimes be. Basically it came down to old maps/data and/or software glitches. This isn't the article, but same idea: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/automotive/gps-system-wrong-direction.htm

 

I also heard a story in that report of a woman whose home was repossessed while on vacation. The repo men used GPS to find what they thought was the home in foreclosure. The locks were changed and many furnishings stripped. Turns out, it should have been her neighbor across the street instead. Now she's fighting to get compensation for all her furniture and misc items from the bank. http://abcnews.go.com/Business/ohio-womans-home-mistaken-foreclosed-property-cleared/t/story?id=19773182

 

What the????  I mean - what about her jewelry?  Pictures? Computers?  Laptops?  

 

And the bank is sarcastic to her?  The police won't help her?  Will a lawyer even help her??  

 

I'd be running around like my hair was on fire.

 

I feel sorry for this woman.  Man!

[swellmomma]

When my ds9 finished camp the first weekend of july my folks were picking him up.  I told them how to get to the camp, which was basically drive down the highway out of town until you see the name "B___B___Ranch" with and arrow pointing ---> and 18 written about the arrow.  Turn there and follow the signs to the camp, when you get to that camp drive past it to the next entrance THAT is ds9's camp.  perfectly good directions, it gets us to and from that camp lol  Anyway, my dad didn't like my directions, so he punched in the address into the GPS.  It it directed him to the post office in the closest town lol  They finally asked a local for directions.  guess what they said "follow the highway until you see the sign that says "B____B____Ranch" with an arrow" lol oh my word my folks were an hour late picking him up from camp and not too happy, I find the entire thing hilarious.  They are picking ds14 up there on saturday, let's see if they have learned to just follow the directions or if they try toe GPS again.

[Laura Corin]

My Mom has her GPS Set to speak Danish. 

 

That Danish voice sounds so excited. It would say, "Turn right up ahead" with the same expression someone might say, "Shark Attack!".

 

 

And then there's the Brian Blessed GPS.  Here he is recording it.

 

 

 

L

[Laura Corin]

When my ds9 finished camp the first weekend of july my folks were picking him up.  I told them how to get to the camp, which was basically drive down the highway out of town until you see the name "B___B___Ranch" with and arrow pointing ---> and 18 written about the arrow.  Turn there and follow the signs to the camp, when you get to that camp drive past it to the next entrance THAT is ds9's camp.  perfectly good directions, it gets us to and from that camp lol  Anyway, my dad didn't like my directions, so he punched in the address into the GPS.  It it directed him to the post office in the closest town lol  They finally asked a local for directions.  guess what they said "follow the highway until you see the sign that says "B____B____Ranch" with an arrow" lol oh my word my folks were an hour late picking him up from camp and not too happy, I find the entire thing hilarious.  They are picking ds14 up there on saturday, let's see if they have learned to just follow the directions or if they try toe GPS again.

 

This drives me crazy, and I'm sure it must upset my neighbours.  UK GPS takes you to some notional centre of the postcode.  Which is my neighbour's house half a mile away.  I always give people directions and tell them not to use the GPS.  Fully half the time they end up at the neighbour's house.

 

L

[amo_mea_filiis.]

The 2 main streets though town are both one ways. The only people who turn the wrong way are the ones staring at their GPS and completely ignoring the signs, the honking cars, and the fact that there is no lane for them!

 

Most people tend to pull into the transmission shop and stare dumbfounded at their GPS.

 

On my block the GPS will tell me that I have arrived at my location on the left. There are no houses on left.

[PrairieSong]

Jean, are you sure your GPS isn't named HAL?

[Jean in Newcastle]

Jean, are you sure your GPS isn't named HAL?

Well, we named her Sally but we've been wondering if we weren't sadly mistaken.   HAL might have had a voice change. . . 

[Dahliarw]

There is at least one brand of gps that will not get you to our house correctly.  For years and years it tells people to turn on a dead end road.  I have a Garmin and it tells me the right turns to get to my house (I refused to buy a gps that did not).  The only issue I've ever had was when I was going to a friend's house that was on a new road - as in built within the last 6 months.  I do update my maps at least yearly...I bought a gps with lifetime maps for that reason.  

[saraha]

A friend and I were traveling in a city new to us. She was glued to her phone which gave me directions every time we wanted to go someplace. Because I wasn't exactly sure of my navigational skills I let her phone tell me what to do. Every blessed time we wanted to go somewhere, it had us get on the highway, then get off one exit down. One time, it had us get on the highway, and there was no exit to get off to where we wanted to go. I had been reading street signs and such all along the way and made an executive decision (I was the driver after all) and got off and took a two lane back into the city. When we actually get back to the city, she asked me incredulously how I knew it would take us there. It was because I had been watching the street signs as I was driving, not the phone. she missed a lot of scenery nd beautiful homes and things to see during the trip because she was watching the phone.

[OhanaBee]

My Mom has her GPS Set to speak Danish. 

 

That Danish voice sounds so excited. It would say, "Turn right up ahead" with the same expression someone might say, "Shark Attack!".

 

Last summer I went on a road trip with my parents and brother for Dad's 80 birthday.  Dad and I are the only ones in the family who believe in map reading.  My brother and Mom swear by the Tomtom.  So there we are, trucking through rural northern Arizona and that stupid GPS is continually chirping out directions.  Not to be outdone, my father is next to me in giving conflicting directions.  From the backseat comes my mother, arguing with my father over whether or not I know what I'm doing.  And my brother - fast asleep [the rat] and oblivious to my mental breakdown.

 

Meanwhile the Tomtom continues to yap about turning here and continuing straight there.

 

I finally said that I needed to hear the Tomtom directions in Spanish to distinguish between its' voice and the other voices in the car.

 

I don't speak Spanish.

 

But "Raul" had a very soothing voice [for a GPS] and he quickly morphed into background noise.  I was able to navigate quite nicely [thanks to the AAA maps] and Mom was comforted by the fact that I was "listening" to the Tomtom.