More Stories Of People Following GPS Blindly Into Dangerous Situations
from the on-top-of-a-mountain-and-at-the-bottom-of-a-lake dept
We've had tons of stories over the years of people blindly obeying their GPS devices way too far, leading to dangerous results... and yet it keeps on happening. Here are two more examples, with one leading to a car stuck atop a mountain, and the other at the bottom of a reservoir. The first, sent in by btr1701, involves a guy in Switzerland who followed his GPS up a mountain on a road so narrow that eventually his car got stuck and had to be helicoptered out (there are pictures at the link).Then there's the guy over in Spain, who followed his GPS directions directly into a reservoir and drowned (the passenger in his car managed to escape and make it to shore, but the driver was apparently unable to swim). The report notes that the reservoir in question is Spain's largest and has been there since 1989, so it seems like any GPS mapping system should be aware of the change by now.
Either way, it still does make you wonder why people believe their GPS over their own lying eyes.
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Filed Under: directions, gps
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Re:
Is that really the point here?
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Re: Re:
The point is two fold ... People are stupid, and evolution is still occuring.
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Re:
Surely the take home message here is 'stupidity is bad for you'. If you follow a little electronic device's direction into a reservoir/up a mountain/into a minefield (it'll happen sooner or later), then it's gotta be a case of PEBSWAS (Problem Exists Between Steering Wheel And Seat).
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"What we've got here is a failure to communicate."
http://failblog.org/2010/10/07/epic-f ail-photos-classic-gps-fail-2/
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The Human Eye Is Perfect In Every Single Way
Because our eyes work so well in the dark and can see roads perfectly for miles ahead.
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Re: The Human Eye Is Perfect In Every Single Way
Shame that people like you think that having a GPS is an excuse for not driving carefully.
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Re: Re: The Human Eye Is Perfect In Every Single Way
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Re: Re: The Human Eye Is Perfect In Every Single Way
I think IronM@sk has probably blindly followed his or her GPS into some sort of danger, but managed to escape, and now doesn't want to take responsibility for his or her own actions.
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Re: Re: The Human Eye Is Perfect In Every Single Way
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Re: The Human Eye Is Perfect In Every Single Way
Who drives up an off-road mountain trail in the dark - even if you had done it previously in good light conditions ....
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Re: The Human Eye Is Perfect In Every Single Way
Good Luck.
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Re: The Human Eye Is Perfect In Every Single Way
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It happens here all the time
Though not related to GPS, the odd impaired driver has gone over the cliff on the hairpin, but it's a short fall and they seem unusually supple and are generally unhurt-I admit it suits me fine to have them off the road, and have to explain how they could miss the turn, tho some have just abandoned the vehicle and I have to get the cops to come and impound it.
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Because the slightest things upset them! A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheat. This sheer cliff may be nothing more than an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato.
Now if you'll excuse me, my GPS is telling me to turn left onto these train tracks.
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Despite Darkness
Imagine driving fast enough that, even in the dark, when something comes into your field of vision you dont have enough time to stop. That is foolish.
To quote the band Tool, "learn to swim"
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Re: Despite Darkness
http://www.lacronicabadajoz.com/noticias/noticia.asp?pkid=57548
That looks like a dirt road, which really shouldn't be taken at high speed unless you're very familiar with it. It seems like he would have been going pretty fast, or been pretty stupid, to drive so far into the lake as to have the car sink before he could stop.
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is there a way?
I'm now awaiting the day when the government decides all cliffs and lakes must have clearly marked warning signs...oh wait they already do!
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Happened to me...
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Misconfigured GPS
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Its inevitable
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Re: Its inevitable
The rest of your comment is just plain stupid.
Do you hide in the basement because going outside might cause harm? A traffic accident could take you out even if you have been very careful, better just stay in the house.
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In short, they are stupid people.
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If your GPS told you to drive off a bridge?...
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Darwin Awards
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Obligatory Quotation
-- Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
"Oath of Fealty"
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Stupid GPS
Amusing watching the flow of big rigs come down that road, in a crowed little townhome development with cars on the street.
No way they can make the turn (although they try), so they are forced to back up for ~1/2 mile, avoiding everything and everyone only to have to pull forward 5 or 6 times to try again.
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Death of a Salesman.
The accident victims were traveling salesmen, going from one hick town to another to avoid competing with big stores. I can see how they might have gotten into a situation where the only alternative was to turn around and drive back the way they had come for fifty miles. The way the roads are set up in places like that, they are designed to funnel traffic into comparatively big towns, which have decent stores, and where a traveling salesman cannot make a living. The people who designed the roads were of course primarily concerned with things like laying out workable routes for school buses, so that kids could attend high schools which would prepare them for university, that kind of thing. The result, in sparsely populated country, where hard choices have to be made, is a "star topology." Of course, if a town is big enough to support a decent high school, it can also support a discount store, and if a school bus can traverse a route, so can a mail van, carrying things ordered over the internet. The accident victims wound up in the reservoir because of the way the economy was set up to squeeze them. Call it "Death of a Salesman."
Of course, local people tend to solve the transportation problem in that kind of situation by having a boat, and another car on the other side of the lake or river, but these were not local people.
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Re: Death of a Salesman.
Sounds like a good place to set up a ferry business.
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Re: Death of a Salesman.
No, they wound up in the reservoir because the guy drove his car into a lake.
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When People Are Following Orders, Their Brains Turn Off
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My family's crazy gap year
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