'Ditch the GPS, It's Ruining Your Brain' WaPo

Interesting, I don't believe it, but interesting just the same. My wife's navigation thing (Google Wi-Fi built in) in her car switches to street view prior to any changes in route. It's pretty cool but the views are aging quickly. ?????ÿ

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This is just one of the many examples of how we humans are gradually destroying our own survival ability.

Several years ago my mother got one of those plug in GPS units for the car and we'll she was not smarter than the machine because she was on the interstate and it would direct her off the interstate and then right back on and she was complaining about it and she got angry when I told her she had to be smarter than the machine.?ÿ

Run on sentence.

And another time it directed her off the interstate onto a parallel road and she was just following the damned thing and couldn't bring herself to ignore it even though she could see the interstate.?ÿ

A couple of years ago we are driving in So Cal, I'm driving looking at big green sign, boss in right seat navigating, he says go straight, but the sign? Go straight, okay, dumb thing has us go to next exit, go over freeway, get on going other way then take exit. Google does weird stuff like that.

Big fires really freak it out. Trying to go 10 minutes across Chico, it says 45 minutes, look at the route, craziest thing I've ever seen. I've had it try to get me to go up in the mountains on the wrong side then take 4wd roads back down to the valley when all we had to do was continue half a mile down the highway then turn left.

My Ford Edge bought new last September has a built-in GPS with maps at least 2 years out of date. I thought that Apple's early experience had taught everyone better.

But I think that the one that has the most potential danger is the back-up camera. It's easy to focus on the picture and forget to look left and right when you reach the street. Sorta like texting while driving.

One thing I like about Garmin Nuvi is that they update their maps often.

I use it a lot when driving for hours because I tend to wander around seeing the sights as I go and return and it constantly plots a way to my destination.

They are great when going thru a metro area that is constantly under road construction as it has the capability to give instant updates on traffic conditions and detours and which lane to be in to make any exits necessary and gives an accurate destination time.

My Navman isn't intelligent enough to know which road you're on, so you can be sailing down the motorway and get audio warnings like "Red light camera 300m ahead", which presumably is from a road nearby.

I find the units most useful for getting real speed info, to set the cruise control. In my wagon 100km/hr (open road speed limit) on the speedo = 97km/hr GPS speed.

If any of y'all are coming to Florida World aka: Orlando, turn your gps do-dad OFF. It may explode or cuss you out. Twenty-one miles of I-4 is being reconstructed flat smack dab in the middle of Orlando. Exit and entrance ramps are closed on a whim, lane changes occur randomly at least 4 times a day, ramps ain't where they used to be or ain't at all. As an added benefit if you don't drive at least 70 through this mess, the absolute least you'll get is the finger. If someone points an automatic pistol on you immediately try to wreck the assailant or slam on your brakes so you will have time to access your own gun, RPG or whatever you utilize to rid yourself of an annoying people. ?????ÿ

FlGA PLS

That is the kind of useful info we need and that should be included on all traffic reports and if I find myself in the Orlando area I will be sure and pack multiple Beretta's and a Saiga 12 gauge for when I have to kill everyone.

I may even have to dust off my 1911.

A month or so ago we drove our motor home, towing a Jeep, to the Gulf Coast.?ÿ I wanted to visit a farm in South Georgia that grows organic veggies and grass fed beef while on the way.?ÿ I let Google Maps lead me.?ÿ I missed a turn (actually a fork).?ÿ No problem, take a left 2.6 miles onto such and such Road.?ÿ WRONG.?ÿ I may not have tried it in my pickup, the road was rutted, washed out and narrow.?ÿ Towing a vehicle you CANNOT back up.?ÿ I kept my speed up and made it through I was still dropping red mud 150 miles later.

Andy

A friend of ours lives at the top end of a 2 mile long "seasonal" rural road.?ÿ Very rural; it's essentially a 12' wide two track through the woods, and being seasonal, it's officially closed from November to April - from just beyond his place to the downhill end.?ÿ A couple of years ago he was out in his driveway when he heard a crashing and thrashing, and breaking of tree limbs from the direction of the road, and pretty soon along comes a fancy, giant, over-the-road tractor trailer rig dangling broken branches and foliage and looking much the worse for wear.?ÿ The guy stopped when saw our pal and when our friend told him (quite unnecessarily) that the road was unsuitable for that sort of rig, the driver admitted to following the GPS, and by the time he realized his mistake he'd gone too far to back the rig down.

I find it handy to have the Google lady on my phone tell me when I'm approaching a turn in unfamiliar territory, but I want to review the route map myself before setting out to be sure it makes sense for me.?ÿ

For many years I found it very useful to have a Garmin that showed me where I was and where the point was I had picked to go so. I could pick my turns and didn't need the verbal directions.?ÿ That works best with a driver and navigator, of course.

The main improvement of the verbal method is that it lets you go alone without stopping so often to check the map or looking down at it while moving in traffic.

I am sure a similar effect could be found in many areas of modern life.

One of the things I like about navigation assistance is the opportunity to take alternative routes on a whimsy, I just go the way I want and let the machine start crunching up alternative routes and arrival times.?ÿ

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I fully buy this. I notice it myself. Navigation is muscle that atrophies.