Some People Still Can't Seem To Question Their Car's GPS

from the out-of-the-frying-pan-and-into-germany dept

Tue, Jan 22nd 2013 3:51pm — Timothy Geigner

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. Point C is where she began. Point B is where she wanted to go. Point D is where she did go. Think about that for a bit...

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

57 Comments

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nonanymous, 22 Jan 2013 @ 3:57pm

Low blow
Considering the age, we are most likely talking about someone with (possibly undiagnosed) dementia-type of mental problems. To try and make it an example of "look, stupid people trusting GPS" like most of the media has is just stupid.
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Rikuo (profile), 22 Jan 2013 @ 4:09pm

I've never travelled...but wouldn't the fact she almost certainly would have had to go through a customs checkpoint or four have been a better clue than the various languages on signposts?
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Dark Helmet (profile), 22 Jan 2013 @ 4:09pm

Re: Low blow
If her nation chooses to trust her enough to drive, mocking her actions using her GPS seems like fair ground....
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Gee, 22 Jan 2013 @ 4:14pm

Re:
Europe isn't strict about its borders like most of the world, you are free to roam wherever you like. But you should check in at a customs, but they dont block the streets with fences.
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Big Al, 22 Jan 2013 @ 4:15pm

Re:
I believe there is free (unimpeded) travel between all countries in the EU, so maybe not.
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radarmonkey (profile), 22 Jan 2013 @ 4:19pm

I'm confused
Why the hell isn't there a Point A on the map?!
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Capitalist Lion Tamer (profile), 22 Jan 2013 @ 4:22pm

Re: Low blow
If that's the case, some helpful family member probably purchased the GPS for her to help prevent her from getting lost. I don't know if you can demand a refund on ironic grounds...
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nonanymous, 22 Jan 2013 @ 4:24pm

Re: Re: Low blow
That's an impressive confusion as to what the appropriate target of ridicule should be in this situation. Even as you yourself specify what is the real issue.

I was going to start with "by your logic...", but that would be giving too much credit already.
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Capitalist Lion Tamer (profile), 22 Jan 2013 @ 4:25pm

Re: I'm confused
Point A was originally a gun owner's address.
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Gwiz (profile), 22 Jan 2013 @ 4:29pm

Why the hell isn't there a Point A on the map?!

Because Point A is Dark Helmet's Secret Lair. Shhhh. It's a secret.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Jan 2013 @ 4:32pm

Re: I'm confused
That's the point her mind wandered off to. Google Maps hasn't advanced that far into space yet.
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Dark Helmet (profile), 22 Jan 2013 @ 4:35pm

Re: Re: I'm confused
Now you've fucking done it....
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FuzzyDuck, 22 Jan 2013 @ 4:36pm

Re:
No, she'd only have encountered a border check point when leaving the so called Shengen area, that is when going from Slovenia to Croatia. And even there, it might not have been manned.

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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FuzzyDuck, 22 Jan 2013 @ 4:45pm

Re: I'm confused
The Belgian alphabet starts with C. Then comes D followed by B.

It's the truth, I swear.
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hester (profile), 22 Jan 2013 @ 4:52pm

Re: Low blow
you are undoubtedly right. at first I thought it was funny. then i realized the age of the woman and stopped thinking it was funny. no question she has some form of dementia.
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Jeffrey Nonken (profile), 22 Jan 2013 @ 4:55pm

"...I'd hate to think that your friend is still waiting at the Brussels North Station..."
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Jan 2013 @ 5:01pm

Re: Re:
Slovenia has a vignette too.
And it#s even more expensive than ours.
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Mike Masnick (profile), 22 Jan 2013 @ 5:14pm

Re: I'm confused
Why the hell isn't there a Point A on the map?!

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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Joe Melton (profile), 22 Jan 2013 @ 5:45pm

We had one of those here in Alaska recently. Not only did the guy drive off a dock into the harbor, but he and the Air Force were looking into a civil suit against the GPS manufacturer and possibly the city:

http://articles.ktuu.com/2012-08-23/gps-device_33348798
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mischab1, 22 Jan 2013 @ 5:48pm

Red Herring
The GPS is probably a red herring. My grandmother has dementia. She used to live in a small town. Before we convinced her to stop driving, she once got lost on the way home from church and ended up 3 towns over before she finally asked for help.
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Anonymous, 22 Jan 2013 @ 6:00pm

Who invented and controls GPS? The government. Don't you think they can manipulate it to give false information? Look up "selective availability". Supposedly they aren't using selective availability anymore...but do you trust them?
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Jan 2013 @ 6:36pm

I try to doublecheck the directions, regardless of where they come from. I still remember that I wrote to one of the early atlas websites many years ago. Their directions indicated that you could turn off a local highway onto Main St. in my town. This is not only impossible, but it would be quite difficult to even find Main St. with so little information. When I informed them of the error, they basically told me that the software guys knew more than I did, despite the fact that I live 4 miles from the intersection. Trust no one!
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Jan 2013 @ 7:02pm

Re: Re: Re: Low blow
the lovely elderly woman was 67, not 97.
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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That One Guy (profile), 22 Jan 2013 @ 7:15pm

And yet another successful test by the sontaran's to see how trusting people are of their GPS systems, and how far they'll follow the directions, not matter how insane.

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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DMNTD, 22 Jan 2013 @ 8:19pm

Government(GPS)
You guys love making fun of people who run their cars into lakes, driving miles out of the way to accomplish nothing more than their ignorance. SO let me make it simple, Government(GPS)+ human(Some People who Can't Seem To Question Their Car's GPS)= USA.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Jan 2013 @ 8:43pm

This woman is 67 there might be some mental impairment of the dementia/Alzheimer sort going on here.

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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Anonymous Coward, 22 Jan 2013 @ 8:45pm

Re:
Oops Tauntaun
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Jan 2013 @ 8:54pm

Dementia my Ass
All of us old people use this excuse to get away once in awhile,usually to hook up with someone we met online...
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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nonanymous, 22 Jan 2013 @ 9:17pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Low blow
No, but feel free to actually look at the situation and evaluate it from perspective of a human being, not a headline generating asshole.
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PaulT (profile), 22 Jan 2013 @ 9:30pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Low blow
OK - either this woman was stupid, or we should be thankful that the mental condition that seriously reduces her ability to operate her motor vehicle was revealed before she caused an accident and injured innocent 3rd parties. Next time she might be blaming her GPS for driving the wrong way down a motorway or ploughing into a school playground, so whatever the cause she'd be better off the road now.

Better?
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G Thompson (profile), 22 Jan 2013 @ 9:38pm

Re: Low blow
Stating that how the media has portrayed this as 'stupid' and that in the same comment state that this lady wasn't stupid because since she was of some arbitrary age and must instead be suffering from dementia, Is the most amazing example of a negating oxymoron like statement of cognitive dissonance I have ever seen EVER. And I deal with politicians and bureaucrats all the time.

I am in awe Sir... in Awe!
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Spaceman Spiff, 22 Jan 2013 @ 9:39pm

As Dorothy once said
Toto, I don't think we are in Kansas any more!
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PaulT (profile), 22 Jan 2013 @ 9:45pm

Re:
Never driven around Europe, have you? You can literally drive through the border without slowing down on some crossings. Languages may not have been a clue as German is a common language in Belgium so the signs may have been multilingual (never been there so I'm not sure if German would be signposted as well as French and Flemish), so Slovakia might have been the first time she encountered an unfamiliar language on a signpost.

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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G Thompson (profile), 22 Jan 2013 @ 9:50pm

Re:
hmmm it seems you have stumbled onto their plane against You.

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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Ox (profile), 22 Jan 2013 @ 10:09pm

Hm
This strangely seems like something how the Terminator begins, only Skynet kills people with their own stupidity.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Jan 2013 @ 11:51pm

"I saw tons of different signposts, first in French, later in German, but I kept on driving."

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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Ninja (profile), 23 Jan 2013 @ 2:55am

Re: Low blow
My father is near that age and he is not that stupid. In fact he often scorns the GPS for giving stupid directions an only use maps instead to check the surroundings of a place he is visiting for the first time.

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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Ninja (profile), 23 Jan 2013 @ 3:02am

Re: Re: I'm confused
Tim got it. She was a gun owner. Not your fault xD
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Andreas (profile), 23 Jan 2013 @ 3:44am

The real question is, what did she enter into the navigation device, and what did the device show as a result? If she made a typo and put in the Train station in zagreb, this isn't related to GPS at all. If the device links "Bruxelles North Station" with Zagreb, that would be hilarious.
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PaulT (profile), 23 Jan 2013 @ 3:53am

Re:
Actually, it's not really related to the GPS itself in either case.

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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Niall (profile), 23 Jan 2013 @ 4:30am

Re:
She's in Europe. The Schengen Agreement allows basically no enforced borders between any of its member states (and a few external countries), making them much like state boundaries in the US. This is why the UK hasn't signed up to Schengen...
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Niall (profile), 23 Jan 2013 @ 4:39am

Re: Government(GPS)
Gun Psycho Soulmates + we-hate-gubmint-unless-enforcing-our-bigotry-but-come-b*****-me-corporations = Grand Obnoxious Libertarian Tea Baggers

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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Anonymous Coward, 23 Jan 2013 @ 5:17am

Honey the bridge is out is 200 feet...

Homer says turn left in 500 feet we'll be fine.
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Lord Binky, 23 Jan 2013 @ 6:53am

I call BS. You can not drive through Cologne and Frankfurt and think you're in Belgium. No freaking way.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Jan 2013 @ 7:18am

No sory, no way. This is a hoax or a joke. Aint no way. even if she has never been to Brussels before and don't know how long it would take to get there, there is no way she can drive through Hungary and the Slovenia and still thing she is in Belgium. No way.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Jan 2013 @ 7:26am

Yes, there is free unimpeded travel between all countries in the EU (or rather in the Schengen Area). However, Slovenia and Croatia is not a part of either. She would have been stopped and asked to show he passport.

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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Gwiz (profile), 23 Jan 2013 @ 8:47am

Re: Re:
hmmm it seems you have stumbled onto their plane against You

Be careful, stumbling onto a plane might be reason to duct tape you to a seat.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Jan 2013 @ 8:52am

When you have to fill up TWICE on what is supposed to be a one-hour drive, and stop at a wayside to sleep, that goes beyond "absent-minded".

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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Q�r Tharkasd�ttir, 23 Jan 2013 @ 10:41am

No frigging way
I agree, I don't believe one word of this story. Sorry, Mike, not one word. This from someone who has travelled exactly those roads dozens of times in her lifetime. Not even dementia, not even a ghost driver as we call them in Europe. Not that I don't believe that GPS can and will screw up anytime it gets a chance to do so��almost missed a flight once when my taxi, in order to avoid a jam, insisted on following its gizmo and was driving off in the direction opposite to the airport. Because I did happen to know the way, it's only a sizeable amount of yelling that saved my day.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Jan 2013 @ 11:06am

Re: No frigging way
"Sorry, Mike, not one word."

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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Anonymous Coward, 23 Jan 2013 @ 11:27am

Re:
OK... um...

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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Gwiz (profile), 23 Jan 2013 @ 11:53am

Whenever I see a GPS story like this one, this Allstate Mayhem commercial always gets stuck in my head.

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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orbitalinsertion (profile), 23 Jan 2013 @ 1:27pm

Re:
So that's how the military hits the wrong targets all the time. Problem Exists Between Seat And Device: PEBSAD.
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Bergman (profile), 23 Jan 2013 @ 2:33pm

Re: Red Herring
That might not be an improvement. Before, she wound up 3 towns away in an hour or two. Now? Now she might still end up 3 towns away, but she'll be missing for days in the process.
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PaulT (profile), 24 Jan 2013 @ 1:09am

Re: No frigging way
"I agree, I don't believe one word of this story. Sorry, Mike, not one word."

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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Q�r Tharkasd�ttir, 24 Jan 2013 @ 3:50am

Re: Re: No frigging way
Yes, my mistake, sorry to Mike Masnick. Not that great a deal, though.
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Buster, 24 Jan 2013 @ 7:10am

Doubel Check
This is the reason I compare my GPS with my Google Maps. If Google Maps says 30 minutes and 50 miles, and my GPS says 20 hrs and 5000 miles, that's when I begin to consider that either my GPS or G Maps is wrong. Either way, I double check my input and the route.
Often my mistake is mis-typing the zip code.
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