Beware of GPS in Winter

[geist1223]

https://www.koin.com/news/oregon/20-cars-stranded-in-snow-on-union-county-road-due-to-faulty-gps-directions

 

[chellej]

I have had my GPS reroute me because of slow traffic because of snowy Icy roads. I was very familiar with the area and the route it was sending me I knew would be much worse than the main arterials so I ignored it.

It sent my dh way up in the boonies one time on an old lumber road....he was in a rental Cadillac. He stopped to ask someone ( on an ATV) where it went and the guy was really surprised he made it as far as he did. He had to find a way to turn around and get back down the mounatin.

 

[klpca]

We had bad traffic a while ago on 395 south, due to road construction. A whole bunch of cars turned off at a random intersection to take what appeared to be an unpaved frontage road. We stayed on the highway because we had our dog with us and it was over 100 degrees. We couldn't afford to have any problems on an unpaved road. The joke was on them. As we crawled along, we eventually saw another line of stopped traffic - on that frontage road. Then we saw cars turning around. I never knew what the reason was. It must have been miserable for all of them.

I used to run both google maps and Waze. Waze was the app that would frequently offer up the weird routes. Eventually I just uninstalled their app. It wasn't worth it to drive through residential streets to avoid 5 min of freeway traffic.

 

[am1]

I've been told to go through farmers closed fields or paths not suitable for 4x4. Or a slight right off the main road to take a road through town and a km later to go back on with no reason.

I have also beat darm equipment by going on an off street.

Gps in any form is not perfect.

 

[Carolinian]

I am not a fan of GPS either. It is too prone to bad directions. I prefer using maps, and if it somewhere I have not been, I will print off a map from the internet.

 

[Brett]

I'm a big fan of GPS (WAZE, Garmin, Google maps) but admittedly I don't travel much in snow areas (now)

 

[WaikikiFirst]

glancing thru this thread, it appears everyone is blaming "GPS" for issues caused by the Navigation System S/W. Those are 2 different things.
GPS is a technology that uses electronics, math & physics. Does anyone really think the GPS was making mistakes?
a Navigation System is S/W that depends on the decision-making "prowess" of humans.
In general, SOFTWARE is NOT a technology. It is human decision-making, and glwt. We'll see what "AI" turns out to be.

Sadly, I have to remind myself to not be surprised that someone could write that article and use the term "GPS directions" over & over.

 

[WaikikiFirst]

Waze was the app that would frequently offer up the weird routes. Eventually I just uninstalled their app. It wasn't worth it to drive through residential streets to avoid 5 min of freeway traffic.

I never used Waze because I heard doozies about its decisions, both from drivers and from people whose neighborhoods were turned into a huge mess by it.

 

[davidvel]

I am not a fan of GPS either. It is too prone to bad directions. I prefer using maps, and if it somewhere I have not been, I will print off a map from the internet.

As noted, GPS does not give directions, the software does. I like maps as well, it is called Google Maps, and has a robust navigation system overlaying a map that is constantly updated, unlike old paper maps that become stale quickly. No need to print because you always have the most updated version in your phone or car.

One can choose to use the built in navigation, or try to figure out the most efficient and fastest route on their own in an unknown location. I choose the former. No paper needed.