Velvet Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 Driver takes GPS to top of cliff -- and nearly overI hate to admit this, but horror stories about people following the directions of their GPS units with utter abandon just never get old. I can't count how many times I've read about drivers that have ended up in various bodies of water, but this is the first time in recent memory that I've heard about a GPS enthusiast that's found himself about to drive off a cliff.This week's installment of bad driving comes from the UK, where a 43-year-old man named Robert Jones drove a $45,000 BMW off the main road and onto an unpaved trail designed for horses, bicycles, and pedestrians, after his GPS unit told him to take the unusual way home.Jones, delivering the vehicle from a town he was unfamiliar with, followed the path up a steep hill and through "increasingly perilous conditions," and didn't stop until he hit the fence that kept his car from going over a cliff at the top of the hill.Rescue workers spent nine hours getting the car back down.Jones later faced legal charges from a local court for "driving without due care and attention," and he was convicted by the court after the judge decreed that he should have paid more attention to the road and less to the blinking lights on the little screen on his dashboard. Jones now stands as one of the first drivers to be convicted in the country for overdevotion to GPS and failure to yield to common sense. The penalty: About $1000 in fines and 6 points on his license.Jones is unapologetic, saying that it's the first time GPS has let him down and that he had no idea things could go so badly awry. But courts seem to be getting increasingly tired of such incidents, with the Telegraph claiming that overreliance on GPS is now responsible for "hundreds of thousands of extra accidents" on the roads of Britain. All because of something that's supposed to help people find the best way from point A to point B?http://ca.tech.yahoo.com/blogs/the_working_guy/rss/article/3887 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamilton Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 Awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanada Kev Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 No sympathy from me.Much like a coworker here who sprained her ankle because she fell down a few stairs due to her being oblivious to her surroundings while walking and texting ... loser!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonyak Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 apparently gps has replaced common sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradm Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 Has anyone thought that either there's a secret conspiratorial cabal that's using GPS to send people into lakes and over cliffs (and just getting people lost), or that at least part of the overall GPSystem has become self-aware, and is trying to off us pesky hoo-mans, one by one? (Note that these alternatives are not mutually exclusive; quislings abound.)Aloha,Brad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 walking and textingMy latest in a long list of peeves! I hate getting stuck behind one of these wonders of natural selection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bouche Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 I've been watching people get stupider and stupider because of GPS. I brought that up in a discussion in my french class, and everyone seemed to love them.I believe that knowing how to find one's way and navigate is importnat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esau. Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 Remember the good ol' days when orientation was part of school? (PE class for me) I still have the compass and have used it several times while canoeing & camping the crownlands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Velvet Posted September 24, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 Remember the good ol' days when orientation was part of school? (PE class for me) I still have the compass and have used it several times while canoeing & camping the crownlands.It was stuff like that that helped me survive PE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanada Kev Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 walking and texting My latest in a long list of peeves! I hate getting stuck behind one of these wonders of natural selection. Sometimes i think it would be helpful to have a bicycle bell while walking around crackberry addicts and compulsive SMSers. I'm just going to start dropping a shoulder a bit .... treat them like somebody mid-ice with their head down. As long as it's a 'clean' hit too baaaad We need street referees. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Booche Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 I've been watching people get stupider and stupider because of GPS.You probably think the internet has made you smarterer. Remember when people used to use their own mememory instead of Google?Actually, you would probably have to Google that to find out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Velvet Posted September 24, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 I've been watching people get stupider and stupider because of GPS.You probably think the internet has made you smarterer. Remember when people used to use their own mememory instead of Google?Actually' date=' you would probably have to Google that to find out. [/quote']bing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanada Kev Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 I've been watching people get stupider and stupider because of GPS.You probably think the internet has made you smarterer. Remember when people used to use their own mememory instead of Google?Actually' date=' you would probably have to Google that to find out. [/quote']bingyahoo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Velvet Posted September 24, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 There's no question in my mind that what calculators did to people's math skills is what internet access is doing to peoples ability to remember things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 I brought that up in a discussion in my french class, and everyone seemed to love them.OK, but what do they think about Kanye West as an artist? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calamity Jane Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davey Boy 2.0 Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 I believe that knowing how to find one's way and navigate is importnat.This coming from a guy who took 11 hours to get from Ottawa to CTMF (Ghostown) one time coz he didn't bother getting directions before he left!Don't go changing, Bouchie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patchoulia Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 I dunno guys..I think you're being a bit harsh. I mean, c'mon: To whom did we sit around feeling superior before GPS enthusiasts & obsessive texters started multiplying exponentially? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Booche Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 Phisheads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Velvet Posted September 24, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 I dunno guys..I think you're being a bit harsh. I mean, c'mon: To whom did we sit around feeling superior before GPS enthusiasts & obsessive texters started multiplying exponentially?I assume you're joking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patchoulia Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 Can I adjust my forum settings so that my posts are automatically purple? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davey Boy 2.0 Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 [color:purple]yes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Booche Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 Can I adjust my forum settings so that my posts are automatically purple? That's the deepest shit I have ever read on this board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peipunk Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 Remember the good ol' days when orientation was part of school? (PE class for me) I still have the compass and have used it several times while canoeing & camping the crownlands.I was Provincial Champion in Grade 12! I could run like the wind then and had a great sense of direction. Ahhhhhh those were the days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 We stayed in Niagara Falls (Canada side of course) for the Phish show at Darien Lakes last August. We decided to let the GPS guide us back to the highway. We start following the directions and I get a feeling that something isn't right, we're going the wrong way. Then the female voice says:"Turn left at Rainbow Bridge!"That bitch was trying to get us to cross the border!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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