GPS in the car: best thing ever or the devil's newest invention

Automobile GPS: Yay or Nay

  • Yes. I think it's a great idea and I love it or want to get it.

    Votes: 2 10.5%
  • No - it's another gadget no one really needs.

    Votes: 6 31.6%
  • What's a GPS?

    Votes: 3 15.8%
  • Recalculating. Recalculating.

    Votes: 8 42.1%

  • Total voters
    19

Saint Fool

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This summer I got my first introduction to on-board GPS.

I'll admit it's fun to take a route other than the one the GPS thinks I should go on:

Please make a U-turn as soon as possible.
Recalculating.
Recalculating.
Pause.
This is an alternate route.
Continue 103 miles to.
Recalculating.

(I hear that if you make it recalculate 10 times in as many minutes, the voice starts using bad language.)

But because I like maps and can easily get exit #s from Mapquest, I don't see the purpose of GPS. As I get older, I figure I need to challenge my brain as much as possible and if I miss an exit, I've always been able to find my way back. Except for that one time in Dallas of which I will not speak.

My friend, who says she cannot live without it, ended up in Kentucky on a dead end road with a 10-foot drop to a creek complete with rusty automobile on one side and a kudzu covered cliff on the other. "But that's how it told me to go!!!"

So if you've got it, do you use it? Do you want it?
 
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C.bronco

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I Google a map, write down my own directions and VIOLA! I am there. I will never google or mapquest directions ever again, BTW, after they both fell tragically short of reasonable directions with an exit number that actually exists.
 

darkprincealain

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When I had a bf, he was in love with the GPS woman. He never yelled at her or called her rude names, and he always listened to her. :D
 

JoNightshade

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Definitely like my GPS. Hubby insisted I get it after the nth time I called him at work to say I was lost and could he look up where I was on Googlemaps? :)

Anyway, the GPS does have its drawbacks, but once you understand how the thing functions you can work with it. For example, mine always prefers major freeways and will often try to get you on them even for relatively short trips. I just zoom out, see which direction my destination is, and then turn onto back roads. Then the GPS gets the idea and "recalculates" accordingly.

Recently we took a west coast road trip, SoCal to Canada, and it was a huuuuge help since we didn't always have an internet connection, never had any idea where we were, and often just needed to know where to grab a bite to eat. The only real FAIL we had was a town in Oregon which had clearly just completed a massive restructuring of its streets. But it became obvious when it started registering us as "off-road" while we were driving on major avenues.
 

tjwriter

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I like plugging an address into Google (or whatever) and then zooming in and out to pick my own route.

I love actual maps though. I was always the navigator on family road trips when I was little.
 

Fran

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People over here always seem to drive into lakes while using one. Um, you still have to look where you're going...

I can't drive but my dad had one and every time it spoke he got a hell of fright! It's been sold.
 

KTC

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gps isn't dumb...people are dumb.
 

jilly61

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gps isn't dumb...people are dumb.


True. My hubby still doesn't listen to the woman trying to point him in the right direction.
 

KTC

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True. My hubby still doesn't listen to the woman trying to point him in the right direction.

lol. i never got that whole thing with men not taking directions. i'm lost without my wife.
 

Pomegranate

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Where I live, the neighborhood is diced up by lots of little skinny canyons. The one by my house is mislabeled as a street. More than once I've given people alternate directions when they realize they can't get from A to C without 4 wheel-drive or a bridge, despite what the GPS says.
 
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aadams73

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I don't get lost that easily. Plus I can navigate just fine with a map or the compass in my car.
 

Jersey Chick

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I need the eggplant option. My car came with OnStar - I've used it once in three years.

Once.


In


Three



Years


And the one time they contacted me, it freaked me out because I listen to talk radio, and sometimes I talk to the radio. That time, it answered me back. I almost drove off the road. They don't warn you - the radio just answers you... weird.
 

Honalo

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I usually just Mapquest and write down the directions.

The only way I can see a GPS coming in handy is at night. For example: I went to a friend's out in Pennsylvania in May. Had no trouble getting to her house in daylight because I could see my directions. Reversing the directions from memory at night was a problem, cuz of course I couldn't see the paper with the directions on it in the dark car.
Got lost.

A GPS would have come in handy then. And I would have been really panicky (because I was driving on a remote stretch that I came to find was along the Delaware River) had I not come across a restaurant, whose patrons pointed me in the right direction (It ended up that I was on the right road, heading south instead of north) - and not too far out of my way.

Though I shudder to think that a GPS, ala Saint Fool's post, could have sent me over the embankment and into the water.
 

LaurieD

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We got a GPS this summer for much the same reason -- LaurieD has a lousy sense of direction and is always getting lost.

We used it for a weekend trip to the Dallas Aquarium.

More than one street appeared to be renamed and the GPS didn't know about it.

All I could hear in the back of my head was the minivans conversing from the Disney/Pixar Cars movie

Minny: "Honey, she's got a map"

Van: "I don't need a map! I have the GPS. Never need a map again, thank you."

Minny: "Oh, for the love of Chrysler! Can we please ask someone for directions?"

Van: "No! There's an on-ramp close! I KNOW it! I can FEEL it! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha!"


Of course, by the end of the movie they're more than a little bonkers...
 

Clair Dickson

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I've used maps for quite some time. When I got my new fancy phone, I picked one with GPS. I would like to have it just in case. I'll probably still print off maps since I like actually knowing where I'm going. My hubby's friend admits that he just listens to the GPS when it's on and doesn't really pay attention at all to where he's going. Funny thing, when the GPS wasn't working (power adapter problem), I remembered where we were going and directed us from memory because with maps, you HAVE to watch the roads. And usually watch for landmarks too...

But at the same time, there have been detours and wrong turns and "where the @%%* did my road go!" situations with the maps that really made me wish I had some sort of back up situation. My favorite was the trip to Traverse City where I think I made a wrong turn, but I'm not sure because I never did find another road sign that matched was was on my map. (Damn county/ local roads...) Luckily, I'm good with directions and just headed North. I knew we'd hit the tip of Michigan eventually and hopefully a road that was on my map. It worked.

I think like all gadgets, it has it's uses. It also has the unfortunate potential-- by people-- to be overused and misused. Then again, I think traveling is part of the fun. We like to enjoy the scenery, look for old architecture, and funny road names. Even now, half the people I know don't know any of the roads they drive on, except the most major ones. And they don't know the short cuts and hidden secrets in their own county.
 

Williebee

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I like getting lost. Keep the gadgets.

I like getting lost, too. It's the best way to really learn your way around. That said, the GPS on my phone saved me hours in traffic last Thursday. So, yeah, I'm a fan. (I try not to fall in love with devices that take batteries.... anymore.)
 

Snowstorm

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These GPS can be very useful, but only if you can be assured it's correct. Here in the mountains, we get people arriving with empty gas tanks because their GPS says there's a gas station here. The nearest station is 30 miles away. Jeez, in the summer, early every day somebody bugs us about buying gas. Some folks got routed onto two-track roads because their GPS informed them the road was paved.

GPS may be worthwhile elsewhere, but here in Wyoming, (outside a city) just use a map and common sense.