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Driver takes GPS to top of cliff -- and nearly over


Pezzy
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Driver takes GPS to top of cliff -- and nearly over

 

I hate to admit this, but horror stories about people following the directions of their GPS units with utter abandon just never get old. I can't count how many times I've read about drivers that have ended up in various bodies of water, but this is the first time in recent memory that I've heard about a GPS enthusiast that's found himself about to drive off a cliff.

 

This week's installment of bad driving comes from the UK, where a 43-year-old man named Robert Jones drove a $45,000 BMW off the main road and onto an unpaved trail designed for horses, bicycles, and pedestrians, after his GPS unit told him to take the unusual way home.

 

Jones, delivering the vehicle from a town he was unfamiliar with, followed the path up a steep hill and through "increasingly perilous conditions," and didn't stop until he hit the fence that kept his car from going over a cliff at the top of the hill.

 

Rescue workers spent nine hours getting the car back down.

 

Jones later faced legal charges from a local court for "driving without due care and attention," and he was convicted by the court after the judge decreed that he should have paid more attention to the road and less to the blinking lights on the little screen on his dashboard. Jones now stands as one of the first drivers to be convicted in the country for overdevotion to GPS and failure to yield to common sense. The penalty: About $1000 in fines and 6 points on his license.

 

Jones is unapologetic, saying that it's the first time GPS has let him down and that he had no idea things could go so badly awry. But courts seem to be getting increasingly tired of such incidents, with the Telegraph claiming that overreliance on GPS is now responsible for "hundreds of thousands of extra accidents" on the roads of Britain. All because of something that's supposed to help people find the best way from point A to point B?

 

http://ca.tech.yahoo.com/blogs/the_working...s/article/3887#

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Exactly!! I don't understand this gps fetish. I can usderstand if you are a courier or something, but otherwise, maps worked for thousands of years. I just have to be smart enough to read one and if you are not, please, stay at home!!

 

I spent a month in Baja with nothing other than a map and compass for navigation and suddenly everyone needs GPS to drive across town... :rolleyes:

 

B

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Exactly!! I don't understand this gps fetish. I can usderstand if you are a courier or something, but otherwise, maps worked for thousands of years. I just have to be smart enough to read one and if you are not, please, stay at home!!

 

I spent a month in Baja with nothing other than a map and compass for navigation and suddenly everyone needs GPS to drive across town... :rolleyes:

 

B

 

There are times when I love using a GPS. My trip to IL it helped me find turns and get back on the highway after being redirected and such. Also helps me in the city because I freak out when I don't know where I'm at. And sometimes i can't pull out a paper map while I'm in traffic. Last time I trusted a paper map for the city I also ended up in a very very VERY bad neighborhood. I thought I was going to be shot tbh. I can see the need for them but some people use them for the dumbest things or never use them at all. I don't understand why some people get that $3k option for Navi on their brand new car and then never use it. My little one works perfectly

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I use my GPS daily, but half the time if I know the general area I'm going to my GPS goes nuts trying to redirect me. As a Handyman, I'm at a different address/part of town up to 4 times a day. I used to print out a google map for each job, so I guess in a way I went green with the GPS, but I'm not the type to give a crap about that BS.

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I spent a month in Baja with nothing other than a map and compass for navigation and suddenly everyone needs GPS to drive across town... :rolleyes:

 

B

 

 

Baja is best with no map and no compass (well the Q has one built-in but i dont use it). Just go where the beer, fish, and sun take you !

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Exactly!! I don't understand this gps fetish. I can usderstand if you are a courier or something, but otherwise, maps worked for thousands of years. I just have to be smart enough to read one and if you are not, please, stay at home!!

 

I spent a month in Baja with nothing other than a map and compass for navigation and suddenly everyone needs GPS to drive across town..

 

I like my GPS in places that i'm not familiar with and yea you have to use common sense...I really like it in places like LA so if I miss a turn it will re-navigate me to my destination without me trying to kill anyone in the process.

 

I typically use it as well to keep track of my destination arrival times and speed. I have used it once offroad and trusted it over my trail map b/c it was getting late and it had most of the trails on there...the "unpaved road" it sent me down was fine for about a mile...then it told me to turn left...left was up like a 45 degree hill...i continued to follow the "trail" bc i saw a mine off in the distance and figured it lead there...the mine had like 4 ways out and the GPS re-synced up with those roads and I knew which road i was following no matter what the GPS told me...it was definitely a lil nerve racking b/c we were alone and we were not prepared to pull an overnighter if something went wrong...but i also knew we were no more than 3 miles from the main road and could have come back for the truck later

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I use a simple TomTom for work. There have been several times I followed it down a closed dead-end road that USED TO connect to another road, but for the most part it's an invaluable tool. I visit many different addresses daily and looking them up on a map isn't always an option, with all the country (rural) areas I have to drive to. Most maps only cover city (urban) areas.

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I had a friend who made a U-turn on a highway because the GPS told him to. :lol:

 

Most of the time, I don't use a GPS, I rely on my compass. When I do have to use a GPS, I use a Bluetooth GPS receiver with my laptop.

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