Death by GPS
Here’s a description of how reliance on our GPS sytems can steer us terribly wrong, in the literal sense.
Beware.
The phenomenon of people automatically following their GPS’s directions is something I’ve noticed many times even in myself. We get into a “follow the leader” mode of thoughtlessly obeying orders, orders that seem innocuous enough. When we’re in the car listening to that calm, hypnotic voice, there’s a mild suspension of agency and autonomy. “Simon says,” and we follow.
The GPS works against the creation of a mental map of a geographic area (the article goes into an explanation of that, too). It’s a series of instructions, disconnected from each other and with no overarching picture of the whole. Unlike the process of looking something up on a map, we are passive and uninvolved, except to plug in the destination.
Fortunately, most people don’t end up in the dire straits of the couple in the article. But there is danger even if we’re not on isolated mountain roads. For example, at times I’ve had to restrain myself from making a left turn when stopped at a red light, because the voice of the GPS has ordered me to do so and I’m in that obedient lemming-like mode. Rather frightening.
But I love my GPS nevertheless. It’s gotten me out of many tough spots. And when you’re driving alone, it’s very difficult to read a map, and I often drive alone. So I’ve found my GPS invaluable.
I keep saying “my GPS,” but it’s really my cellphone and Google Maps. I used to have a dedicated GPS, but it finally died and I saw no reason to replace it, since cellphones have taken over that function. I set the destination, put my bluetooth in my ear (or turn up the volume on the phone itself), and wait for that soothing-yet-somehow-annoying voice to guide me through the labyrinth.
The places where GPS is most likely to fail you (mountains, canyons, deserts, remote sites) are also the places most likely to not have cell phone coverage, either.
I used to be my husband’s GPS. I studied maps and planned routes. When I first moved here, many roads didn’t have numbers, so you had to navigate by town names. It was quite a challenge. Last year he got a new Golf and the GPS is phenomenal. It takes you around big traffic jams and construction delays. What it doesn’t do is tell you that you are only a mile from a neat small town where you can stop for lunch. I guess I still come in handy.
Turn off the voice directions; turn on the moving map. that way you can see where it plans on taking you and adjust accordingly. GPS is great for finding obscure addresses of house and business, but one must be aware of its faults and limitations just like any technology.
I like GPS, but also see how it contributes to technology dependence. My younger daughter’s lack of spatial orientation is due primarily to her dependence on GPS for getting around.
A Garmin will take you around the barn to get another half mile of expressway. If you insist on going against Garmin’s directions, you’ll get a recalc.
I like it because I will know in advance whether, for example, my expressway exit is the rightmost of four lanes, the left two of five, and so forth.
If I’m in unfamiliar territory, the voice or the display will tell me “point five miles to Maple Street, then left”.
But it’s silly not to start out planning a trip with a map. If you have multiple stops you can figure the most economical order. If you think I75 will be full of snowbirds, you can figure a way around, and, as expat says, you can enjoy, say, the Cumberland Parkway or Norris Dam road and it will only cost you a few minutes.
And if you’re pitched off the road due to an accident or snowfall or whatever, Garmin doesn’t give you the other roads very well. My wife’s smart phone is a help there, but it’s not as good as a map for the purpose.
Ooops. Those who suffer by GPS are probably not suffering because GPS made them stupid. They’re probably lacking in the common sense, situational awareness department. They’ve probably gotten lost on an elevator.
I love my Google maps, and am not sure how I ever found anything in the time before Google maps. That said, I frequently piss it off by using my own brain, and going routes that I know. I can hear the frustration in its voice, “STUPID human!”. One thing I’ve learned to love is that it anticipates traffic and takes me on routes that in the end are faster.
I have never before heard of “death by GPS”. What a horrific story. I occasionally use my GPS, especially on trips but when traveling in unfamiliar territory, I automatically pull out a map and/or Google maps to get an overall feel for the area. I also find that after doing so, that I often disagree with both google’s suggested route and the GPS directions.
In the old days (1990) you had to enter quite a bit of data to start up your hand held Magellan GPS. The difference between a + and – in one data set would instruct your device that your coordinate set was in the southern hemisphere. Consequently I couldn’t locate or navigate (in eastern WA) to features smaller than a square foot. GIGO.
How technology has improved!
Always check the route the GPS “calculates” first.
Strangely, be it a high end Garmin unit, an in car unit, or Google Maps on the smartphone, they somehow don’t consistently calculate the same route between two points.
Got into the habit of checking first, so we don’t go wandering through unfamiliar residential neighborhoods.
Even if it does, will follow the route we want to get us near the destination and then follow the GPS for the last mile or few.
Our newest auto smartly allows you to check alternative routes to select before locking in.
My GPS took me down an unsealed forest track in Western Australia en route to a popular town near Perth. I continued along the track for about five miles thinking that it lead to a sealed road, but the track deteriorated. On turning around to retrace my steps the right front tyre (tire) side wall was lacerated by a sharp stone. There was no cell phone coverage in the area. Changing the wheel proved impossible for us, the wheel rusted to the axle. Fortunately another SUV arrived and we managed to remove the damaged wheel and subsequently get back to the sealed road. A frightening experience.
That should be “led to”.
I usually use Google maps, take pictures, use the satellite screen, and make sure that I’m actually looking at what I think I’m looking at. Then correlating it with local landmarks.
That way, while the instructions are nice, I don’t need the gps. Not if I have spy satellite images and what not on hard drive.
This also happens in boating and it is even worse. The charts show the exact GPS coordinate of a navigation marker. New boaters will put that into their GPS and get distracted and end up hitting the marker. That not only breaks the marker, it can sink the boat.
Another favorite trick is to put the entrance to the harbor into the GPS. However the course pays no attention to sand bars, shallows, and even land, running the boat aground. Fun times.
Old fashion as I am, I print out a map and driving directions, study the details and there you go. Works every time with no friendly voice directing me into a ditch.
What Parker Said, only don’t print out the map — make a quick sketch of it in large black marker, or else use an honest-to-god printed commercial map, if you can find one with route numbers and names in print big enough to read.
Memorize all you can; keeps those brain cells humming and keeps you from obsessing about how stupid this whole trip is, and wouldn’t it be better to go take a nap.
And remember this: Google is not God, however much it would like to persuade you it is. Google Maps makes errors all over the place. For instance my very own house, where I’ve lived for well over 30 years — and in a populous suburb within 30 miles of the Loop — is not where I always thought it was. No, according to G.M. it’s four houses down the block.
A GPS is to navigation what a calculator is to math.
You need enough experience with geography and mathematics to know when you get an absurd answer.
Change how you think about it– I treat mine like it’s someone who knows the area really well, but is an idiot about traffic laws or common sense. One of those people who will say “it just takes longer!” when you ask why they’re avoiding a route they’ve sent you on before, and if you think about it a bit you’ll realize it’s because last time it was morning, and now it’s night, and that’s a heavy transit area.
The pretty-dang-new Garmen gets traffic updates, will let you tell it to avoid a specific chunk of route, and they ditched the “recalculating” thing.
You also need to go in and tell it to avoid various types of roads– in addition to the forest service type roads, I tell mine to avoid u-turns (in Seattle? In a minivan?!?!) and toll roads plus ferries.
****
There’s a reason we call ours a “talking map.”
“Old fashion as I am, I print out a map and driving directions, study the details and there you go. Works every time with no friendly voice directing me into a ditch.” – parker
Great point. We have road maps with us as backup.
Not convenient for in city navigation (vs GPS), but useful in case GPS is out, or for double checking.
I’m a carpenter and I do a lot of remodel work, so I visit a lot of different places in a year and the GPS in my iPhone has been a godsend for me. Not only does it help me find the job site the first time (after the first or second trip there, I can find my way around without the GPS) but also if I have to return to that place some time after the job was completed (usually repeat business). It’s also be valuable in helping me find nearby lumber yards, hardware stores, and the occasional restaurant for lunch.
That said, it also meant dealing with some frustrating issues; many of them are no fault of the GPS. The biggest issue I have is getting a proper address from the contractors I’m working for; they always try to give me directions. I am lousy at following directions, but most people are lousy at giving them and will quickly rattle off the entire route before I have a chance to find a pen and paper.
One thing I learned is that a GPS is best left turned off until the last leg of the trip, then turn it on and let it figure the route to my destination. This keeps the GPS from trying to send me down some off the wall route because it’s “shorter” (I will never understand why driving ten miles out of my way, to get to a freeway, is shorter.)
Just for a joke, I left my GPS on to “guide” me back home from visiting relatives in Cincinnati. The only time I really needed the GPS was to work my way through the bypass to get back on I-75. Anyway, I’m about three miles from my home, back in familiar territory, and my GPS app (this case it was Navigon by Garmin) insisted that I take a route home that was ten miles longer than my normal route and also took me down three miles of gravel road that has a reputation for being rough. This program kept insisting that I turn around and take the “proper” route, and would not recalculate, until I was within a half mile of my home street.
KRB
It beats “Turn right where the old Johnson place used to be. Half a mile before you get to the river. Can’t miss it.”
Have a love-hate relationship with my GPS. Mostly love, as I have found that it takes a lot of the stress out of travel and navigation. On the other hand, I have had a couple of slightly scary experiences, including a GPS-led route that took me over a “seasonal” road in upstate New York. Seasonal meaning mostly unpaved and passable only in warm weather months. Glad it wasn’t winter when I made that drive. After reading the article I think I will be even more wary of relying on GPS in sparsely traveled areas. That story about the young mother and her 6-year-old son in Death Valley was horrific and heartbreaking.
My wife’s initials are GPS, and I sometimes refer to her that way — I’d be lost without her.
In all seriousness, she has an excellent sense of direction — far better than mine — and I’ve relied on her directions many a time.
She said that it was ego-deflating, not long ago, when she finally had to concede that Google Maps could navigate trafficky side-streets faster than she could.
As for me, well, when I’m on my own, I use GPS. A lot. I used to print out Mapquest.com directions on one side of a folded sheet of paper (suitable for holding in one hand while steering with the other). GPS has gotten me to where I need to go, often painlessly, and saved me quite a few times.
We were going to a country golf course for a wedding. Unbeknownst to us or the GPS, a developer put a new housing development next to the golf course and cut the old road. We met three other cars trying to get to the reception (the wedding was over by now) all driving around the new development trying to get to the golf course that we could see just across the meadow.
The biggest complaint about cell-phone mapping tech is its incapacity to pre-load certain maps for you in the event that you wind up in a low-coverage zone.
I mean, if I’m in, say, Austin TX for a couple days, why can’t I tell it to load up the maps for Austin and the surroundings?
Someone in the map-app business is going to figure that out and make a fortune.
Yeah, one reason for this is limited local storage. I have a 128 gb microSD chip for that.
This isn’t the late 00’s any more.
Bupkis:
There are a bunch of apps that let you download offline maps and directions in event you are unable to use GPS or unwilling to waste data, such as when traveling abroad. I have used maps.me in Italy but here’s a list of other options also:
http://www.igeeksblog.com/offline-map-apps-for-iphone-ipad/
Because, for some obscure reason, some (but not all!) streets in the Los Angeles area are not numbered continuously when they pass through different jurisdictions. As a result, there are two other houses with identical address to ours within about four blocks of our house. If we order a pizza, for example, and the driver uses a car GPS or Google Maps, he will invariably be directed to one of the other addresses. We’ve taken to using the address across the street, which for some reason isn’t duplicated.
Related:
http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/national/ontario+woman+blindly+followed+straight+into+lake+huron+while/11917623/story.html
I saw an article the other day suggesting a current toddler may be a rarity if he ever gets a drivers license when he comes of age. The assumption was that unlike the generations who viewed a drivers license as the gateway to freedom, these future teens will instead look upon it as an imposition if they have to drive while everyone else in the car is free to use their phones for whatever the hot activity is by then.
I’ve already seen signs of this among current teens who show a shocking indifference to what was the teen Holy Grail for my generation. Not all of them but enough to raise an eyebrow.
The aspect that chills me about this is the love of politicians for trains that only take people where the politicians and their appointed planner think people should need or want to go. In an era of self-driving cars, whoever controls the navigation software can get the same results as any technocrat who wanted public transportation to be the sole option for most of the population.