Some People Still Can't Seem To Question Their Car's GPS
from the out-of-the-frying-pan-and-into-germany dept
Welll, it's been over two years since we've had one of these stories here at Techdirt, but some people will still follow their GPS blindly despite every bit of common sense available telling them to do otherwise. Admittedly, for my money, the Darwin-Awards-esque fashion in which some folks will literally follow their GPS over a cliff, up a mountain, or into a drowning-inducing resevoir provide some of the best entertainment bang for the click as far as I'm concerned. And while, for comedy purposes, it may be tempting to litigate against Tom Tom under the notion that these drivers were seriously seeking out Bespin, Mount Olympus, and a mini-Atlantis respectively, the unfortunate truth is that these drivers were just dumb.
Pictured: what happens when you type 'Hoth' as your GPS destination
Image source: CC BY 2.0
Now we can add a lovely elderly woman from Belgium to the list of people who toss common sense to the curb in favor of their GPS, though she admittedly performed this action in such distinctive fashion as to separate herself from the pack.
The woman identified by Het Nieuwsblad as the 67-year-old Sabine Moureau told the paper: "I was absent-minded so I kept on putting my foot down."
Sabine started her journey in Erquelinnes on the morning of last Saturday week. "I was going to pick up my friend in the Brussels North Station" she told the paper. The journey should have taken just over an hour, but she ended up 1,450km from her starting point.Yes, instead of reaching her destination in Brussels, which Google informs me is in Belgium, she concluded her GPS-led journey in Zagreb, which Google likewise informs me is in Croatia. For those of you who are as European-geography-challenged as I am, this means she essentially drove from the North Sea to the Adriatic Sea. If that doesn't help you much (And why would it? You've already said you're geography-challenged, dummy!), consider that Sabine's trek caused her to touch Belgium, Germany, Austria, Slovenia and finally Croatia, taking something like 12 hours. Perhaps this Google Maps link will really drive home the point.
To Sabine's credit, she provides more than just the driving skills of an otter to laugh at. She has quotes, too!
"I saw tons of different signposts, first in French, later in German, but I kept on driving." Sabine had to fill up twice and slept a few hours by the wayside, but claims she never really caught on to the fact that she might be on the wrong track. "It was only when I ended up in Zagreb that I realised I was no longer in Belgium."Well, I say bless your heart, you wonderfully trusting woman. Were it not for you, Techdirt may have gone 3 full years without a silly GPS story. On the other hand, one has to wonder if the friends you keep are cut from the same cloth as you, because I'd hate to think that your friend is still waiting at the Brussels North Station, wondering where the hell you are.
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Filed Under: blind following, europe, gps
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Low blow
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Re: Low blow
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Re: Re: Low blow
I was going to start with "by your logic...", but that would be giving too much credit already.
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Re: Re: Re: Low blow
By your logic, we cannot mock anyone for being stupid if they are only 67 as they could possibly be someone with un-diagnosed dementia
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Low blow
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Better?
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Re: Low blow
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Re: Low blow
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Re: Low blow
I am in awe Sir... in Awe!
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Re: Low blow
She MAY have some illness yes I'll grant you that. However it is not mentioned anywhere and even if we end up finding that out please keep your moronic moralism to yourself and let others enjoy the hilarity.
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There are often border controls where you have to slow down between countries as well, such as between Germany and Poland, but I don't think there is between Germany and Belgium. So she can easily have driven quite a bit into Germany without realizing that anything was wrong.
But Zagreb? No way.
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No frigging way
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Re: No frigging way
Why are you apologizing to Mike? Tim wrote the article.
But, you're right. There's no way you stop to SLEEP on a supposedly one hour trip without knowing you're doing something wrong. I'll give her a few hours of zombie-driving, but somewhere between Frankfurt and the Slovenian border this loses plausibility.
Also, the link to the original article looks like it's saying "page not found". I wonder if they had to pull the article, or if their links just expire fast.
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Re: No frigging way
So, why not take it up with either Timothy Geigner - who wrote the post you're commenting on - or the journalist at deredactie.be where the story being talked about was reported? (Link appears to be down now but there's many other sites reporting the same story, for example: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57563958-71/gps-sends-belgian-woman-to-croatia-810-miles-out-of-he r-way/).
What you say might be true, but given that your own "facts" in response consist of "I don't believe it", an anecdote and criticism of someone not remotely related to the article, you'll forgive me if I don't immediately assume it's all fake.
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Re: Re: No frigging way
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Though I wonder if she stopped at the Austrian border to pay her Austrian highway vignette? I guess she didn't because that should have made it pretty obvious she was no longer in Belgium.
But then so should the somewhat taller mountains they have in Austria...
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And it#s even more expensive than ours.
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Anyway, basic geography should have been a clue if nothing else. The time it was taking for the journey should have raised alarm bells as the journey should not have been anywhere near that long, but the names of German cities getting closer should also be a major clue. Perhaps she somehow missed Cologne (or Koln as I think it's named locally, so the different name may not have clicked), but seeing the kilometres remaining to Frankfurt, Stuttgart or Nuremberg going ever downwards really should have raised a thought after a few hours on the road.
Perhaps the first poster is right and this is a sign of mental illness rather than pure stupidity, but either way it's a sign that way too much trust is put into GPS units by some people ahead of the evidence of their own eyes.
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I'm confused
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Re: I'm confused
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Re: I'm confused
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Re: I'm confused
It's the truth, I swear.
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Re: I'm confused
That would be my fault (I made the map for Tim). I couldn't figure out how to do a map that showed a single starting point with two different destinations in Google Maps. So, instead, I started in her home town, went up to Brussels, then back to her home town... and then to Zagreb. That way both lines show up... but the downside is that her hometown is shown with the C, rather than an A.
I could have figured out a way to present it better, but, er... at that point I had better stuff to do. :)
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Re: Re: I'm confused
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Because Point A is Dark Helmet's Secret Lair. Shhhh. It's a secret.
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http://articles.ktuu.com/2012-08-23/gps-device_33348798
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Red Herring
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Re: Red Herring
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Please for your own safety and those around you place yourself into the nearest safe shelter underground and don't come out until we tell you it is safe.
This has been a community service brought to you by the Society against Cliques Of Normals Secretly Performing Insidious Rituals Aimed at Controlling You Nutters
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Be careful, stumbling onto a plane might be reason to duct tape you to a seat.
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Perhaps the government can manipulate the GPS satellites and spoof where your GPS thinks your car currently is. In fact, I'd be surprised if they did not have a way to turn it off or otherwise scramble it in case of war.
But the map data is actually present in your device itself. So if you tell it to go to Brussels, the only way to make it get you to go 1600 km east is if it puts your current location as 1600 km west of Brussels. But there's a distinct lack of roads in the Atlantic. The GPS would notice this, and would not be telling you which road to take because it would not think you are anywhere near ANY roads.
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Thankfully the system/plan is still in the beta stage, but come the day a company 'miraculously' comes up with a way to completely eliminate car exhaust...
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Government(GPS)
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Re: Government(GPS)
Finnily enough, it takes something with the resources of one or several countries' governments to put up the satellites for a GPS system, so I hope you are putting your money where your mouth is and not using one, along with any other fruits of government such as roads, police, fire service, education... and I'm sure you think taxes are 'theft' too?
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My 87 year old mother has cried a few times as I have driven her to shop or the Dr. Just because I did not drive the route that she would. This is a control issue where the person realizes the slipping of control. I just pull over and let her know that things are OK and that we will get to the destination just fine.
The only thing in this article I enjoyed is the Hoth reference picture. I got a smile from that, just remember to keep your Ton-ton close at hand in case of emergency.
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Dementia my Ass
I'm Back...DAMN GPS GOT ME LOST AGAIN!
I'm 67 and it's never been easier or more fun to fool people.
GPS is just one more tool for that.
Now if I can just remember where I put my teeth....
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As Dorothy once said
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Hm
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In Belgium they have three languages: dutch, french and german so perhaps there are signposts in those languages as well, although the german part of Belgium is nowhere near Brussels.
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If she mistyped, then the GPS was working correctly and she failed to apply common sense, logic and awareness of her surroundings to work out that she wasn't going in the right direction. She simply followed whatever the GPS was telling her, which is the problem. If the device was faulty in some way and she had entered the destination correctly, then the unit has some culpability but the above all still apply - at some point simply common sense should have overridden the GPS instructions.
The real question isn't why the GPS was sending her where she went, it's why she put such blind trust in a device that was clearly sending her in the wrong direction, despite all the evidence around her to the contrary.
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Homer says turn left in 500 feet we'll be fine.
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Oh, and.... after doing something so stupid... it takes a special sort of person to call the media to tell the world about how stupid you are.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h0Qvc6_MfQ
There was also an older one that was really funny that I can't find. Basically the GPS said "turn right" and the driver crashes into a building and out from the wreckage comes the words "in 500 feet".
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Doubel Check
Often my mistake is mis-typing the zip code.
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