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Satellite Navigation a Real Crackpot!
debest writes "What happens when your satellite navigation system in your car gives you bad advice on which road you should take? In Britain, these systems have been directing drivers down a road near the (aptly named) town of Crackpot that is strewn with boulders and has an unprotected 100ft dropoff on one side! The locals are worried someone's going to go off the edge."
Treat it for depression, give it plenty of (if its voice command) encouraging words or (if its tap-n-go) a good rub, but be sure to keep an eye on it; its obviously has suicidal tendancies.
Demented But Determined.
Is why are the british drivers punching in "crackpot" as their destination? Agreed that GPS Nav works like magic, but this is too much optimism. What did they expect, a list of all local crack joints with directions?
""What happens when your satellite navigation system in your car gives you bad advice on which road you should take?"
Not much different than that gas station attendant five miles back.
Come on, if back in the early 1980s you could get a sentient talking car, then why in 2006 do we settle for these simple guidance systems that are so limited they could get us killed?
Hey now, come on, this story is cute and funny in a safely humorous, non-tech way. I don't know about you, but I want to know about every navigation bug affecting rural UK folk. Just what I expect here at /. Boy oh boy, let me tell you about the time Yahoo! Maps told me to take the I405 instead of I5 to go to South Seattle from Lynnwood. FRONT PAGE NEWS!
A B A C A B B
...put up a sign "Toll Road Ahead".
I had a similar problem recently while driving through Pennsylvania. I had set my car's GPS computer to lead me to Intercourse, but no matter what I pushed it I could only reach Bird in Hand. Of course, I've had this problem with web pages on my PC at home before, so I really can't blame the mapping company.
In Crackpot there's more than one way to go off the deep end! /rimshot
If a computer tells you to jump off a cliff, would you do it?
"Don't drive there! The road ends on a cliff and we'll all fall off and die horribly!" "But the GPS directions say to go that way!" "Oh, in that case, no problem. "
>I had set my car's GPS computer to lead me to Intercourse
maybe you should try match.com, I hear that works pretty well. It must be better than your gps, at least.
This adspace for sale! Inquire within!
The locals are so worried about this. Just like, in the days of sailing ships, the villagers who put up fake lights were very worried that some ship might run aground on the rocks. I say we see who in this village is hacking the GPS. First place to look...the suspiciously wellstocked local secondhand store.
I knew I should've bought a squirrel
If an officer ever threatens to taze you, say you have a pacemaker.
I say buy the parcel of land at the bottom of the 100ft dropoff and set up an auto wrecking yard. Put up sign half way down - "Welcome to Crackpot Auto Wrecking"
In Soviet Crackpot, GPS drives you!
"I'm a Laver, not a Phyto[plankton]"
>> Yeah but how do you get people out of their cars?
Gta style. You open the door and pull them out.
It has been statistically shown that helmets increase the risk of head injury.
One of the things I enjoy about my GPS is that it sometimes takes me on rocky, dangerous, fall-off-a-cliff dirt roads that I'd otherwise never find!
Procrastination -- because good things come to those who wait.
Hawes... yes, I remember staying there on a fieldtrip at high school!
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Not only is Hawes pronoused Whores, but there is also a dairy there called "Hawes Creamery". http://archive.thisisthenortheast.co.uk/2001/4/27