GPS - Enabled Idiots !

With GPS navigation systems making their mark among the roadies, also comes their way of getting into the limelight. Well, for good or bad depends on the eye of the beholder! These days, people in urban areas use GPS devices to guide themselves across their routes. However, at times, lessons are learnt the hard way—this is what Norman Sussman of New Mexico found out. Sussman asked his GPS unit for alternate directions after driving continually in heavy traffic.

Delighted on getting an alternate route, he ascended up a winding mountain road, hoping to join the interstate at another point. After nearly half an hour of turnings, Sussman came to a halt. He had just reached a 200-foot cliff!

Well, this is certainly not an isolated case, as commercials these days have started airing incidences of errors arising out of the use of GPS devices. In a popular commercial for Nationwide Insurance, a man is seen crashing his car straight into a restaurant after following navigational instructions from his GPS device. Steve Schreibman, the firm’s Vice President of advertising says the idea came from his own weird experiences with GPS. In a recent episode of the popular sitcom The Office, the character Michael drives straight into a lake, again due to faulty GPS navigation. Driving in the wrong direction and then realizing it later would surely result in loads of swearing!