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Drivers Need To Forget Their GPS
HughPickens.com writes: Greg Milner writes in the NYT that an American tourist in Iceland directed the GPS unit in his rental car to guide him from Keflavik International Airport to a hotel in nearby Reykjavik, and ended up 250 icy miles away in Siglufjordur, a fishing village on the outskirts of the Arctic Circle. Mr. Santillan apparently explained that he was very tired after his flight and had "put his faith in the GPS." In another incident, a woman in Belgium asked GPS to take her to a destination less than two hours away and two days later, she turned up in Croatia. Finally disastrous incidents involving drivers following disused roads and disappearing into remote areas of Death Valley in California have became so common that park rangers gave them a name: "death by GPS." "If we're being honest, it's not that hard to imagine doing something similar ourselves" says Milner. "Most of us use GPS as a crutch while driving through unfamiliar terrain, tuning out and letting that soothing voice do the dirty work of navigating."
Could society's embrace of GPS be eroding our cognitive maps? Julia Frankenstein, a psychologist at the University of Freiburg's Center for Cognitive Science, says the danger of GPS is that "we are not forced to remember or process the information — as it is permanently 'at hand,' we need not think or decide for ourselves." "Next time you're in a new place, forget the GPS device. Study a map to get your bearings, then try to focus on your memory of it to find your way around. City maps do not tell you each step, but they provide a wealth of abstract survey knowledge. Fill in these memories with your own navigational experience, and give your brain the chance to live up to its abilities."
Could society's embrace of GPS be eroding our cognitive maps? Julia Frankenstein, a psychologist at the University of Freiburg's Center for Cognitive Science, says the danger of GPS is that "we are not forced to remember or process the information — as it is permanently 'at hand,' we need not think or decide for ourselves." "Next time you're in a new place, forget the GPS device. Study a map to get your bearings, then try to focus on your memory of it to find your way around. City maps do not tell you each step, but they provide a wealth of abstract survey knowledge. Fill in these memories with your own navigational experience, and give your brain the chance to live up to its abilities."
>> "death by GPS."
So, now is it finally legal to slap the phone out of pedestrians hands when they're about to stumble off the curb (whether into a crosswalk or not). I know I already honk at drivers who are staring at their dashboard (or their lap) as they inch through an intersection or change lanes on a highway.
No. This is silly. You're better off having GPS than not having it - just don't shut off your common sense at the same time.
#DeleteChrome
I'm old enough to have learned how to navigate without GPS or even maps. I use GPS nowadays, but only as an aid (ETA is fairly accurate). I've seen it make enough mistakes to not ever trust it 100%.
Learn the basics: the "sun rises in the east and sets in the west" type of stuff. Learn how roads are numbered: north/south are generally odd numbered, etc.. Learn which way the mountains in your area are oriented. Buy a map and get acquainted with the area and which way the main roads are laid out.
It ain't that hard to find your way around. I've spent nearly forty years going to places I've never been to before and I haven't been lost once.
The problem isn't that the GPS is wrong, the problem is that the user is in error. In the Iceland case, the driver made a typo and wound up going to a similarly-named road 250 miles away. Had he entered the correct street name, he would likely have made it to his destination without a problem. I'm guessing the Belgium-Croatia case is similar.
And I thought people driving into a lake because the GPS told them to turn right was an episode of The Office.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Some of the GPS units I've used just start giving you street directions right away after you enter a destination. The better ones I've used (including Google Maps) start with an overhead view of your entire route, then zoom in to the street-by-street view. That makes it rather simple to spot silly errors like driving from San Francisco to Springfield, Missouri, instead of Springfield, California.
These people are doomed to failure from the beginning. After learning how to operate a vehicle safely (note this apply's to almost any vehicle: car, bike, plane, boat, etc.) your second goal is to properly navigate that vehicle in the public domain. Most countries by now have implemented at least a basic form of navigation for at least a few forms of transport.
For example, in a few weeks I will be driving from Reno to Las Vegas, NV. I have 100% confidence that I will not get lost at any point during this journey, with or without GPS. I already know the route I wish to take, which roads I will be using, which towns I will be passing through, and about how long it is between each town. I even know where I will probably stop for gas and lunch in Tonopah. I have a printed map, and know that for the most part I will be on US-95. The state has kindly marked these roads with signs that I can follow. If these people can't figure out that they should be going mostly East instead of mostly Southwest, and do so for days, even hours, GPS isn't the problem.
So what is the other side of the statistic? How many times has a GPS unit sent someone in the correct direction, when a human would have driven the wrong way without the GPS?
Just wait for the auto drive cars to fail in the same way.
It is navigation. /. summary.
Navigation software working with the navigation mapping software which is the problem described in fine
GPS is the fancy clocks floating about in space.
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From the linked article about deaths from GPS in Death Valley NP:
The mapping people at the National Parks Service were unable to contact a human being at Google to update their map, but could talk to Tom Tom.
I've heard that story also from other professional source.
That doesn't absolve stupidity, but still, it's nice when maps mark the important stuff. But then, Google maps violates most of the rules of good cartography.
Garmin's response to someone following their GPS half-way under a low bridge was, "Would you follow your GPS through a red light?"
Back in the dark ages, about circa 2010, researchers found evidence that GPS may erode navigational ability.
"Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans were taken of older adults who were GPS and non-GPS users. The subjects accustomed to navigating by spatial means were found to have higher activity and a greater volume of grey matter in the hippocampus than those used to relying on GPS."
http://phys.org/news/2010-11-r...
It has to do with people who are cognitively damaged/incompetent and are unable to comprehend that "this shouldn't be".
People have been wandering and getting lost long before GPS navigation was a consumer product. Ever since we've had an interstate system, people have been getting on the southbound ramp instead of northbound and winding up in Florida 2 days after they started the hour trip to visit the grandkids. Before that, they'd just wander into the wilderness and get eaten by a bear.
If somebody enters a destination in their GPS and it says the estimated travel time is 3 hours and they know it's a 5 mile trip, it's not the GPS' fault if they shrug and start driving.
Probably a form of mental illness.
I do a lot of driving out in the forests and rural areas with GPS for navigation. I've noticed that I often need to be sure to set the GPS for Shortest Time rather than Shortest Distance. Setting the GPS to Shortest Distance can result in the GPS directing me via routes like 'Forestry Road #13' or worse.
The other thing I've noticed is that I can start a trip in town using my phone GPS and get directions to a rural location (actually hiking trailhead) and then on return be somewhere with no cell signal and be unable to get return directions.
I now travel with smart phone, stand-alone car GPS, and a paper map. I've occasionally had to resort to the paper map.
[Insert pithy quote here]
If some driver getting themselves lost is a news story, then GPS must be incredibly good at giving correct directions.
GPS isn't the problem here. Perhaps I'm being pedantic when I say that, but it needs to be said. If it were the problem, it would likely be obvious; the location fix would be totally wrong and the directions wouldn't make any sense. It might say to turn where there's no place to turn or, quite possibly, indicate you're not on a road at all when you actually are. The real problem is a combination of software issues, poor design, and user error.
I do see some very strange routes that come out of some mapping software. I live in a city that's mostly a grid with some major north-south and east-west roads. If I plan my own route, I'll tend to stay on those main roads. That makes sense because the speed limits tend to be higher, there are fewer uncontrolled intersections, and the stoplights will be timed such that you're less likely to hit red lights on those roads. Mapping software often plots a course that zigzags through the streets. I suppose the software projects it saves a few seconds, but I'm not convinced it's the optimal route. I make trips east to St. Louis from time to time, and Google Maps gives me some bizarre alternate routes. If I'm heading east on I-70, an alternate route that follows I-64 (or if you're from St. Louis it's Highway 40) makes sense. It's probably a time difference of a minute or two. However, many times the alternate route offered involves taking some state highway down to I-44 or something like that, which can add an hour to the trip. I have no clue why this is a logical alternate route, but it's what the software finds. Thankfully I know not to consider those routes.
Poor design can be an issue. If it's easy for the user to select the wrong destination, that's a big problem. That certainly sounds like the case here in the linked story. If the user can't easily verify that the destination entered is really where they want to go, then poor design can be to blame.
That said, none of this is a substitute for common sense. If a route looks really strange or if the estimated time seems way too long, that's because it probably is. Driving for two days and crossing international borders for a trip that's supposed to be two hours long cannot simply be blamed on mapping software. The user is an idiot. At minimum, you have to cross two international borders to get from Belgium to Croatia. Quite possibly it was more than two, which should have been a huge warning sign that the user was too foolish to pay attention to.
GPS is a wonderful tool. I tend not to rely heavily on it to give me precise directions. I tend to follow the approximate route if it looks reasonable to me. I also use it to tell me where I am and roughly how long it is until the next turn and when I need to watch for particular road signs. That said, it's no substitute for common sense, knowing how to read a map, and watching the signs along the road.
I hate all anonymous shitbags. Log in, you filthy bastards.
No, I"m not...I do NOT want kids. Therefore, there is no reason to get married, and risk losing half of what I own whenever I decide I want to move on to a different woman.
I have had a number of very long term relationships (each of numerous years)....and sure, I know that requires some compromise, but seriously, a fucking car horn he has to ask about? Does he also ask if he can have a pudding cup or a beer before dinner??
There's a difference between compromise in a relationship, and being a spineless yes "man" in a relationship where you feel you have to ask or get permission for anything you do.
Yes, I say, grow a pair....women don't respect you if you don't assert yourself, show confidence, and show that you know (or at least project that you know) what you want in life.
If fact, being too much of a pussy, can put your at risk of losing your dear woman.
Just because you put a ring on her finger, doesn't mean you should let her put one through your nose and guide your ass around the rest of your life.
If it gets too bad...well, there are a ton of other women out there, a dime a dozen.....
But hey if you want to be monogamous your life with one women, fine....but you still don't have to be a pussy and cow-tow to the woman. If you have to get WAF (Wife Approval Factor) for simply changing the horn in your very own car you have....you've got some problems my friend.
Geez, do you ask permission to change the radio station too?
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Put up a toll sign and profit!