Following GPS into the drink
GPS is a very cool technology. If I had had the dough, I would have ordered my Prius with it. But there is always a need for a functioning human brain to provide backup. A British woman could have used more cranial software recently. The GPS in her Mercedes said there was a road ahead, so she plunged ahead, despite data entering her eyeballs that told her brain the road was under water, submerged by heavy rains.
The water grabbed the L96,000 (that's $188,000; is that even possible?) SL500 and tossed it downstream. The woman managed to escape, was rescued, and ... well, you can read about it here. Take-home lesson: If the road ahead is flooded, turn around, don't drown, no matter what your GPS tells you.
Comments
Lots of money can get you somewhere in life, but is apparently no substitute for common sense, and may hinder it in some cases.
Heard a concert last weekend in Baltimore of two musicians from the Shetland Islands, one of whom recounted spending several hours with Google Maps printing out directions to all the places in the States they would visit. This was in lieu of spending $800 for a Nav Star system. He was quite proud of his work, until he picked up the rental car and realized it had built in talking navigation.
In the end, though he learned more about where they were going by studying the maps, he might have saved some time by trusting the GPS. Which makes me wonder why travel if you can pass through and not have to know much about where you are.
Posted by: Susan | March 27, 2007 11:54 AM