Lost Couple Can't Blame GPS, Air Force Says

[Newsbot]

Neither aging GPS satellites nor a weak GPS signal was responsible for an elderly couple getting stranded in the woods, the Air Force says.

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[vjp]

It wouldn't be the first time that news reporters didn't have a clue about the subject they were reporting.

The GPS system had nothing to do with their plight. It was either a failure of their navigation software, a failure of the couple to understand the nature of the road(s) that it showed in the route that it calculated, or both.

A while back, I was playing with Google Maps to find the shortest/fastest route to a campground in Shenandoah National Park. I was dumbfounded to find that it was recommending routes into the park via unpaved fire roads - roads that are impassable except by 4WD, and are gated closed, in any case. The developers of navigation software need to pay better attention to what constitutes an actual, usable road.

 

[darkhelmet]

It wouldn't be the first time that news reporters didn't have a clue about the subject they were reporting.

The GPS system had nothing to do with their plight. It was either a failure of their navigation software, a failure of the couple to understand the nature of the road(s) that it showed in the route that it calculated, or both.

A while back, I was playing with Google Maps to find the shortest/fastest route to a campground in Shenandoah National Park. I was dumbfounded to find that it was recommending routes into the park via unpaved fire roads - roads that are impassable except by 4WD, and are gated closed, in any case. The developers of navigation software need to pay better attention to what constitutes an actual, usable road.

The SW developers either live in a big city and have never been on a dirt road, or they live in India and have never driven a car! But, I'm sure they're all smarter than the average US journalist... or the stranded motorists.

 

[The EGE]

When we were out in Oregon last year, in the area near Bend, our GPS kept tellign us to take all the logging roads. Also the east side of the Crater Rim road... which happened to be closed by snow at the time (early July).

Fortunately, we had good guidebooks, common sense, and spring having melted off most of the snow.

Also, Oregon is not a fun place to get stuck in. We stopped on a wide gravel shoulder along a pretty major route north of Bend to take a picture, and our SUV got stuck in the volcanic gravel. No cell reception, and no town for 15 miles. Fortunately, a few friendly passerby were able to drive to a nearby DOT office, and we got towed out.

 

[sylvie369]

Don't count on map accuracy in a big city either. I've walked with my handheld GPS on every street in my town this year, and on the mapping software, there are at least a half dozen (nonexistent) streets that I missed.

Of course the consequences of a wrong turn here just aren't that great.

 

[The EGE]

Mapmakers sometimes put small nonexistant streets in their maps, as a form of copy protection. If another mapmaker copies the map, than the original source can point out the fake streets in the copy.

I assume the software would never actually lead someone down a nonexistant street.

 

[les]

I assume the software would never actually lead someone down a nonexistant street.

My work allows us to borrow a GPS for travel. I had never used one so I decided to try it at home before I left. I was heading back into work and set that for my destination. As I got close, I turned into the parking lot which was before the actual building. The GPS issued "recalculating...recalculating" and then told me to make a right to get to a side street to get back to the plant. The issue... the only way to turn right to get to the side street would require driving up a 20' embankment and driving through someone's backyard. There is no street (and has not been one for the 30 years I've been there) to exit the way the GPS directed me.

So the GPS will try to send you on nonexisted streets.

I learned then to take the directions with a grain of salt.

 

[davel]

Don't count on map accuracy in a big city either.
Of course the consequences of a wrong turn here just aren't that great.

In downtown Milwaukee?!?!?!?

 

[n5wd]

The Air Force says it wasn't THEIR fault.....

We believe it was caused by the Navy.. or the Army... maybe the Marines... possibly the Coast Guard....

:neener:

 

[texas-bill]

Of course the consequences of a wrong turn here just aren't that great.

Wonder if, in Chicago, the GPS navigators are smart enough to know that left turns aren't allowed, that they need to instruct the drivers to go one block past and make three rights

 

[sylvie369]

In downtown Milwaukee?!?!?!?

Yeah, well, I see people turn down nonexistent streets here all the time. You just have to dodge them.

Wonder if, in Chicago, the GPS navigators are smart enough to know that left turns aren't allowed, that they need to instruct the drivers to go one block past and make three rights

If the navigators are that smart, then they're smarter than the drivers.