This morning in New York a driver turned right, as the GPS directed. It ran head on into a train. The three people in the car got out safely, and no one on the train was hurt. This is the second accident at that location, caused by faulty GPS direction. The newscaster says, "How hard is it to look out the window?" I do not have GPS. I find MapQuest to be in error often, as well. Do you have GPS, or do you use a computer based direction source? I use Map Quest, but I also back it up with an atlas.
[question posted by GardenGerty]
responses and comments:
we've used mapquest and now we also have a gps. i usually check both and they are the same directions. our gps had been off once so far because the exit had changed locations. but we need to update our maps so it may be right on the updated maps. i don't think people can blame the gps for that accident. sure the gps was wrong, but 3 people in the car and not one of them could say "hey we shouldn't turn on the train tracks" ? when we go anywhere we don't blindly rely on the gps. i still check road signs and pay attention to where it is sending us. [ravinskye]
It's very true. It sad how technology had crippled mentally a lot of people. Anyway I'm having a ball making money online, doing surveys, testing new products, doing focus groups and as a costumer service rep working at home. You should check out my website at http://moneymakingpc2k.webs.com and see if it's something that would interests you. There are a lot of information there from freelancing/telecommuting to Mystery shopping and legit survey companies. Have fun! [eds4ko]
On the tv they also said they were investigating and that the drivers should not only rely on the GPS. [whiteheather39]
I wonder,myself, if they just misinterpreted what they read on the GPS. I have never used one, and I am not familiar with the technology. I know sometimes even the road markers I am watching and following can be misinterpreted, and so I probably could easily misread a GPS as well. We all need to open our eyes. [GardenGerty]
You know, as I read this, I could not stop thinking how right that newscaster was when he said that. The GPS shouldn't be giving directions like that, but really, did the people not think to look out their window and notice a large train right there? I don't have a GPS, although I do really want a handheld one. I have used map services online, such as Mapquest and Google Earth. I used Mapquest and printed off the directions to get this place in Alabama on the coast, but my father decided to use them to a certain point for some reason and we ended up staying elsewhere. So I don't know how well those directions would have worked, but to that point it worked pretty well. [DarthJustice]
Hubby tends to print off Mapquest directions forward and backward and then decide that he can make a better choice of routes. I have had one really bizarre experience with Map Quest, and it may make a good discussion later. [GardenGerty]
Map quest didn't even know where my town was the last I knew. I live in NY and it came up with a Vermont Map. Surprised it didn't give up Canada, at least my part of NY used to be Canada, but I don't think it used to be Vermont. [writersedge]
I told it Mooers and it went right to Vermont and I didn't see one in VT, so who knows what's going on. Ours was for General Mooers who lived here. Wonder how they got the name. [writersedge]
Sheesh! Wouldn't you think common sense would over-ride a GPS system?! While GPS is meant to be a help, I don't think it's always 100% correct, and should be used as a help...not an infallable. It doesn't know if traffic has been re-routed, like if a road bridge is out, nor can it tell other important stuff like that. Not sure, but I think this is the second train/car accident I've read about where people blamed their GPS for it, and I'm sure there are probably many more instances we haven't heard about. I use MapQuest a lot too. Just like you I find it to often be in error, and carry my car atlas to check on. The company my one daughter works for sends her out of town to deliver patients to this other hospital system. They print out a MapQuest for her, and in this one area of town the MapQuest is totally 'off'...as is the regular state map! Lots of times anymore I'll ask AAA for a trip tik to get to an area far from home that I haven't been too. At least they know when a road's temporarily closed and all that. (Well, more often than GPS or MapQuest anyways.) [JoyfulOne]
I believe this is the second one at this location, also blamed on GPS. Yes, this is only as good as the people who program the systems, and things change on a daily basis. [GardenGerty]
This is far from the GPS's fault, its a user error. Sure the GPS probably said in a friendly "Turn right here", however I don't care who's telling me to turn, if there is no road only tracks, or if there is a big train coming at me, I am NOT turning. Basic driving logic, trust the navigator but don't do EXACTLY as they say, I am not gonna turn left the moment the navigator (human or GPS) says turn left, I'll do it at the next available left hand turn. People can be so idiotic. [Myrrdin]
I know that I am not one to follow things blindly. I do not have GPS, it might be neat to have, but I still will do as you say, and turn where there is a road. Sounds like the learning curve is too great for some people. [GardenGerty]
Maybe this cab driver purchased his GPS from EBAY real cheap LOL. Other than that the expensive one they are accurate and trust worthy. [coolguy01]
I do not think it was a cab driver, just some ordinary person. I am with our other friend, though. Cheap or expensive, gadgets are only as reliable as the people who program them and the ones who use them. [GardenGerty]
Hi friend, If we go out,we generally take GPS with us and with the directions it gives,we go.We blindly follow it.But after reading your discussion,i feel i should be careful in finding out the way. Thanks for your discussion. Have a nice day. [sudhajosyula50]
Ya i too agree with you.But if you are new to a place and if no body is there to help you out to reach your destination that you have to depend upon one thing.Because of that i am depending upon GPS,if i get use to this place than i will go by own. Have a nice day. [sudhajosyula50]
I dont have GPS. But my son does and so far he had no problem with it. Wonder why the people in the car did not see the train coming, that would be the first thing I would see if I was driving.Glad to here that no one was hurt. [babystar1]
Did not see it, did not hear it, I have not heard why. A train is required by law to blast its horn before it gets to an intersection, so I am sure it was. Since it was head on, I am also sure that big white light was shining and the driver should have noticed it. [GardenGerty]
I have never used one. I have thought about getting one, but definitely would also stay aware of where it was sending me. I usually just get directions off of the mapquest site. [Thoroughrob]
I do use MapQuest, if I am looking for directions, but we often go ahead and check a map out as well. If it is a long ways, we also ask locally about things. [GardenGerty]
I can't believe that they are blaming this on the gps. As the newscaster said, didn't the driver bother to watch where he was going! I can tell you that once my son took our gps to go to a restaurant in Buffalo and he ended up going into canada!!! That was with no birth certificate or anything. He had a harder time getting back into NY than he did getting into Canada. We use a gps, but usually will print out on mapquest too, just incase. [sunshine4]
Of course we have to blame the technologylolWho would admit to being so engrossed that they could not see a train. Like the old saying, "If your friend (or your GPS) told you to jump off a tall building, would you?" [GardenGerty]
I woke up to see this on the news this morning. It isn't hard to look out a window but if you do not know where you are supposed to be going how are you going to know if you really should be making a right instead of a left? I hate mapquest. It takes you out of your way, that is when it actually gives you correct directions at all. I read "If he was paying attention to the road it might not have happened," said Assistant Dep. Chief Steve Conner of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police and had to laugh. I mean come on it isn't the rood he needed to be paying attention to. How loud were the GPS instructions that the sound of the train coming (whistle) could not be heard? [razcal2267]
I am glad someone else heard this on the news. I agree about the whistle, it is a law as they approach the intersection they have to signal, certain number of blasts, and all that. Maybe he was also on his cell phone, or playing loud music. It just seems if he looked he would have seen it was not a street, but was a train track. [GardenGerty]
I use mapquest for places I have never been to before. They are only as reliable as the latest data they've uploaded to their site. Just as GPS is the same. Most times I will use a map of some sort for out of state areas etc. I am very good with directions etc. Once I go somewhere I can recall how to get there. I may not know streets etc but landmarks usually help me recall an area. HAPPY POSTINGS FROM GRANDPA BOB !!~ [webeishere]
Some people are really gifted in that way. I like the broad details on Map Quest, but the local stuff is always changing and they may or may not be accurate. [GardenGerty]
We use map quest, we find that it doesn't always get us to the destination by the shortest route but it does get us there, of course we also carry regulart paper maps. [savypat]
In addition to having a paper map or atlas, I like having the phone number of our destination. We had directions to our daughter's house in Minnesota, but the last half mile there were some changes that were not reflected in Map Quest, but we could get the really good details from her by phone. [GardenGerty]
Hi Garden, Wow..I really thought that it's all accurate and safety..ANyway, nothing is perfect...We have no GPS and hubby used only mapquest!winkwinkwink [checapricorn]
I will also bet he uses his eyes, his ears and his brains. [GardenGerty]
I have a GPS that has directed me to non-existent roads. However, you have to pay attention to the road with your own eyes. The GPS is just a helpful tool, but it isn't perfect. [stylioJ]
That is right. I do not let any of my other tools tell me what to do and obey them blindly. It is important to use the facilities you were born with as well. [GardenGerty]
Boy those GPS thingies. happy My sister and I (plus my son and her 3 daughers) were out in Colorado for a wedding in an area where none of us had ever been. She brought along her GPS unit to put in the rental car. Finding the dude ranch where we were staying was easy. But when we tried going site-seeing, it was a joke. The GPS thingy kept trying to get us to turn into a brick wall at one point. And when we refused to turn that way, the female computer voice kept telling us to find a way to make a legal u-turn and try again. We finally had to turn the thing off. [kenzie45230]
That was my best laugh out of this discussion. I was in a situation on a trip with my sister once on a trip, and it was before GPS and MapQuest, but we kept finding the same dead ends, over and over. [GardenGerty]
You cant blame that on GPS. Its just plain silly to rely only on GPS. It is only a help not an all in all solution. [mojcica]
That is correct. It is not infallible. We have to use our eyes and ears and reason with our brains to make good choices. [GardenGerty]
I like the good old fashioned alas too, give me a regular map and I can find my way. I went online to get directons to my sisters house. Yahoo sends me one way, Google sends me another way and Map Quest sends me another total different way. Then I ask my sister and she has another way different then the other three. I told her I have an atlas, and when I get in the state I will get a state map. I have traveled the country with an atlas. [Polly1]
My late husband was a trucker too. He had to use maps all the time, that was work to him. So when we were on our vacation road trips I was the navigater, I took care the routes, directions and maps. I told him where to turn, I was the GPS before there was one. [Polly1]
hi gardengerty I think the old fashioned way of using ones eyes and one good atlas and map are the safest ' way to travel. if the gps works fine, but if it doesnt 'then back to the basics.electronic gizmos are fine 'as longas they work, but the basics can be used if' need be. [Hatley]
Sometimes I feel as if we have lost some of our skills by relying on technology. [GardenGerty]
This is another example of why people need to remember that they are the people and the computer thingees are just tools. The people still need to take personal responsibility and stay in charge. I think dri vers need to drive when the wheels of the vehicle are turning and pull over to look at their GPS. Same thing with answering the cell phone. I see no reason why people should be so enslaved to their technology as to feel the need to answer the phone while driving a vehicle. Part of maturity, it seems to me, it being able to understand priorities and act responsibly in connection with them rather than giving in to instant gratification. [drannhh]
In general we seem to be getting less and less mature, and less and less independent. [GardenGerty]
I am not a driver, so I don't use either of these things, but it really is good to know. It is hard though when you really don't know where you are going and you have no idea if these systems are steering you in the right direction of 50 miles off course. [winterose]
I like them for the generalized directions, most of the time, although MapQuest did send me on a wild goose chase through the mud on a rainy day my first day of a class and hour and a half from my home. I got ready to go back home after class and the gal in a little shop said, "Honey, look out there, just get on that highway and it will take you straight where you need to go." Usually it is not that far off, just little details of local streets, that the citizens know better. [GardenGerty]
Well, that's really nothing new to me. This really reminds me of the time when I tried to get to the place where I can get my computer fixed, I used a GPS back then. I got lost, and yes, that happens sometimes. But with that being said, I spent like 2-3 hours with the GPS (a little p.o.s) trying to reach my destination. That thing... either the ones who manufactures GPS should do a better job programming it, or maybe it should be just banned out of the market. I heard a story which took place in Canada or Australia, I don't know where. But the driver in either one of those places was using a GPS. The driver turned right, and just went straight as the GPS directed him/her to. And guess what? Oh no, the driver ended up driving toward the end of the cliff, and he fell off of cliff inside the car for like... a couple hundred feet??? sad... The GPS integrated in the car or the ones you buy from the stores, it is pretty cool idea that you can have a little gadget in your car that tells you where to go in order to reach your destination, but the false programming which makes the GPS to guide you toward the wrong direction... should be banned out of the market (is what I think). happy mylotting :) [animeniak]
I wonder if something happens to them to mess up their programming. That is sad. [GardenGerty]
no, i do not have gps or use mapquest. don't go anywhere so i don't need it. my sons say if i get out of our county i go into shock. lol [ANTIQUELADY]
haha, its just plain stupid in my opinion, that driver doe not use his head to check first, what if it was someone crossing the road, the GPS would say drive straight and the drier does not look outside and continues driving and knocks someone down. However dependent are we on technology, we still have to uthink sometimes, technology can fail, maps can be outdated and so on, so dont depend too much on it. [soccnut]
I had a GPS breifly. One week after we got it it was stolen when our brand new car was stolen earlier this year. We got the cr back but not the GPS. I had it hidden under the passenger side seat and still they found it. I still had to pay the darn thing off cause I had gotten it on easy pay on QVC. That sucked cause I was paying for something I would never see or use again. i use mapquest. [sweetdesign]
GPS do benefit the driver a lot when driving on the highway.but when getting into the downtown or the triffic net is complicated,there comes many problems.ONCE my father drove from A to B via C,he get lost in C.the GPS show the totally wrong way!AFTER that,my father seldom use the GPS,and he would rather stop to ask the native!!!so new Tech do benefit,bu we can't be enslaved to them! [tobepure]
This is the first I hear of an accident caused by the GPS system! My husband was eager to get one for our recent trip to France, but my teenage daughter insisted on being navigator using Google maps and that did the trick, we did not really need a GPS! [sylvia13]
I have to agree that it's a driver issue not technology. Rather hard to notice that there is a train there. It also depends on the GPS. Does it broadcast traffic? Or just directions? My husband has one that he used constantly while driving semi. He didn't have an FM transmitter so didn't get the traffic information. I'm sure that he would've noticed a train though. [prplrust]
Oh my goodness! That is frightening! I know when we went to the states in the summer, our GPS system wasn't working, and it was because at the time the states had to pay a monthly fee, as we were told by the Rental car people. Not sure if that is still current. BUT, I know whenever it's used in Canada, it gives excellent directions, gives up to date traffic info, as well as construction sites [candymarie]
That accident was not the fault of a faulty GPS system, it was the fault of the driver! The GPS may have said to turn right, but wouldn't you LOOK before turning, even without a GPS? That driver should have looked before he/she turned into that train. This reminds me of a story a guy I knew told me about his girlfriend. They were in a car, she was driving. She was in the left-hand lane of a two-lane road and pulled up behind a car with it's left-hand turn signal on, stopped at a red traffic light. The guy told her she should get into the right-hand lane so she can go instead of getting stuck behind the car trying to turn left. She got into the right-hand lane, and drove directly through the red light! She blamed him, but it was not his fault. HE wasn't driving, SHE was. The police would have said the same thing if she had gotten stopped. The driver of any vehicle is responsible for looking out for any dangers and to always, always look before turning! They are responsible for every move that car makes, no matter what anyone or anything says. [mentalward]
Hahahahaha! Isn't that the truth!?! [mentalward]
I use MapQuest.com as well, I do not have a GPS nor have I ever used one. I use a map and MapQuest.com to help me in my directional needs. Maybe some places have changed and they haven't changed that in the GPS map system yet..But as you said couldn't they have seen that it was the wrong way if they paid more attention to where they were headed? [mtdewgurl74]
I think some people just rely too much on technology. I use mapquest, but I also use a map, and read road signs. I still can get lost, but I do not think I would drive head on into a train. [GardenGerty]
It's not the fault of the GPS - people who totally rely on computers and machinery are just asking for trouble! Exactly right, "How hard is it to look out the window?" Blaming the GPS is no excuse... thumbdown [louise99]
I hope they look next time. Most of us have either eyes or ears, if not both. [GardenGerty]
I can't trust my instincts, that's what I can't trust. People have forgotten or never learned how to read a map so they rely on computers to guide them. A computer only knows what you tell it, if you tell it something wrong it doesn't know, its only a piece for data entry. I don't use GPS but I'm thinking about getting it because we travel so much and I sometimes need to find something that close and a map just doesn't give that detail. [gitfiddleplayer]
My family always joked that whatever way my instincts said to turn, we should go the other way. [GardenGerty]
I find this funny, because I mean you see where your going because your driving. I want a GPS, only because I can't find my way out of a paperbag. Now maybe the driver was looking down at the GPS before turning right, but what was the other two passengers doing that would have prevented the driver from heading towards a train. Currently I use computer based directions and those are sometimes wrong, so if a GPS is going to be wrong, I rather it being told to me. Than having to look down every minutes to read the paper and risking running off the road or into another driver. Before I buy a GPS, I will research it and compare others and prices, hopefully they will go on sale after Thanksgiving. [chertsy]
I know when I'm riding with someone and there is kids with us, my eyes and ears are wide open to what's going on around me. So no telling what those two passengers was doing to be so distracted. Thank you, I have been wanting one for the longest, It will come in handy when I go visit my family that lives almost 2 hours away. Also thank you for best reponse. [chertsy]
Turn right here...and it is 2 driveways before the real street. GPS is wonderful..but you must use common sense...a turning on to train tracks...this is just plain stupidity. It sound cruel...but people just don't think. I am sorry. It is not the GPS fault. [Debs_place]
Common sense is becoming less and less common. [GardenGerty]
Thats what realy i thought about this.My brother has one.We used his car when we were in vacation and used the GPS is guiding us.So far, it was fine but in my mind i came up with this question,what if this thing made a mistake?I really hope not but now my question has been answered by your post. [msedge]
A GPS should only be used as a guide. its word is not law. I don't treat my computer as if it gives me human advice, I only use it as a reference point. Honestly, some people are dumb enough to trust the GPS as law? Geez!!! I question everything, and if I were the driver in this case, that questioning nature would have saved me. [danishcanadian]
I don't have a GPS, my sister does though, and when ever they are visiting or we are visiting them we usually ride in their van because we can all fit, and the GPS has indeed been wrong. I still print out directions form Map Quest or Google Maps. But those have failed me in the past, now if I am not in a hurry I will print directions from both sites so that if something goes wrong with the first set of directions perhaps the other directions can get me back on the right track. [ladym33]
Best results are from a human being, though. [GardenGerty]