“They didn’t know where they were exactly, so the sheriff’s office assembled its search-and-rescue team and headed out in the sub-zero weather.”
With Google maps you can send a text with your exact location.
Some sent over cliff?
“Thankfully there was cell service — which is no guarantee in some parts of Wyoming — so the family was able to call emergency services.
They didn’t know where they were exactly, so the sheriff’s office assembled its search-and-rescue team and headed out in the sub-zero weather.”
Dozens of apps to give lat/long coordinates.
Waze.
;^)
I tell my daughters - “Don’t blindly trust your GPS - check the route, look at at Google Maps (or a paper map) and make sure it makes sense.” Do they listen? Pfffft.
I still do directions on Google Maps or Mapquest before I go and I carry a map book in the car. That way I can sanity check the GPS (or, usually, not use the GPS until I get to where I’m going and use it to find my actual destination).
I’m stuck in the past. I use an old Garmin GPS to get me to distant destinations. And Garmin does the same thing. It sends me along dirt roads, through cow pastures, etc. It’s quite the adventure.
I think I’ve got it programmed wrong. So I’ll break tradition. and actually read the manual. No, strike that. Instead I’ll just stop going to distant destinations.
That mushy thing under your skull, it’s called a brain. Use it.
For the last several years, my wife and I have been making a 60 mile round trip commute nearly every day. We always use Google Maps so that we know what the traffic is going to be like ahead of us.
There were several times when Google Maps erroneously reported that I-5 was closed and tried to send us on side streets. There was road work going on and occasionally there was a lane or two shutdown but the freeway was never actually closed. The error persisted one time for nearly a month.
I commented to my wife that this could probably cause a lot of confusion especially for people who were from out of the area and possibly waste a lot of people’s time.
If you want directions as to where I live, Google maps will take you on the “shortest route”. A route that might save you a minute, but takes you through some narrow back roads and some neighborhood streets. Instead of a much better highway.
I’ve always told people, for years. Do not use Google maps to get to my address.
They’ve got one near me that’s supposed to connect two highways. It’s someone’s driveway.
Google maps also always takes you through the WORST sections of town in cities.
Without fail, it always showed the best route through Syracuse right through the heart of the most dangerous sections of Syracuse.
Mr. mm tries to use it when we travel and I hate it.
“Each was mistakenly misled to the same remote patchwork of untrodden tertiary and quaternary roads thanks to their in-car GPS navigation systems,”
So probably NOT Google maps. Some friends have “in-car” navigation
Built into their cars and directions are different from Google’s.
GPS navigation is only good if you know where you’re going and it can “assist” you in getting to your location but if you rely solely on it you’re an idiot.
If your GPS tries to put you on a dirt road, just ignore it and keep going and it will re-route.
What would cause it to act differently?