Rely on GPS instructions?

[pwd72s]

I'd advise not using GPS as your sole device. Here's another story of a death caused by GPS taking someone on a wrong path. Not the fist time this has happened in the Northwest.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/missing-oregon-mom-dead-daughter-alive-in-idaho-forest/ar-AAQozJR?ocid=msedgntp

The sheriff's office said the women were driving to Utah and following a navigation system when they got lost in the northern Idaho forest. When their vehicle broke down, the mother left to find help but died from exposure to the elements while the daughter, who is mentally disabled, stayed behind.

[drcoastline]

I never rely on GPS. I still have an entire library of Maps. What do you do if the GPS goes down?

[rwest]

I always check a map first and or have them in my car. I also have a “rule” that I only use GPS twice to get somewhere and after that I need to be able to find it on my own-relying on computer directions all the time will just make you directionally challenged.

My friend has been to my house several dozen times and he still uses GPS every time! Geez...

[Seahawk]

I use GPS every time I leave my little rural county...it is essential. I use Waze as my nav application and it is spectacular for traffic, police, hazards, time to destination, etc.

I frankly can't imagine not using it.

All that said, there are a few tips to help:

- Route overview is your friend. Enter your destination, let it calculate then overview the entire route, zoom in and out. I carry an Atlas with me and compare the suggested route with the map, map.

- Run a second app. I do it all the time. Waze gets to talk, the second app is quiet.

- Cities. This is where Waze and other app are critical. Again, I get a general sense of the route then compare with the paper. Washington, DC is a mess, Waze makes it less so.

I flew all over the planet without GPS in my trusty H-60, did the first GPS testing in Navy aircraft, etc.: GPS, properly managed, is the best, safest tool ever.

[VINMAN]

I never rely solely on a GPS, whether its driving, out on my boat or in the woods. Always have a map or chart as a back up. Electronics fail.

One of the first things I do with new young guys in the firehouse, is teach them to use the big township map up on the wall. They have to learn to navigate and find locations using the map. No GPS.
Its mind-blowing how clueless some of them are when it comes to directions.

.

[rfuerst911sc]

I live in rural North Georgia and use GPS all the time . My personal use says it's accurate 99% of the time . I can't drive and read a map at the same time if driving solo . Yes it helps to basically know where you are going . Situational awareness also comes in handy .

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by VINMAN

I never rely solely on a GPS, whether its driving, out on my boat or in the woods. Always have a map or chart as a back up. Electronics fail.

No question. Paper always as back-up.

In your line of work GPS may indeed be a deterrent.

[Bill Douglas]

You need to more or less know where you are going in the first place.

[Esel Mann]

Originally Posted by drcoastline

I never rely on GPS. I still have an entire library of Maps. What do you do if the GPS goes down?

Why I pull out my spare GPS receiver located in my other cargo pocket. Redundancy....

Kiddin aside, basic navigation is not only fun, but a legitimate fallback should GPS suddenly no worky......

[pwd72s]

Where I think GPS falls short is in areas with low population or no population. It fails to recognize what road is good or bad, and also doesn't take into account weather conditions. Although the article was sketchy with info, probably what happened in this case.

In a previous case here in Oregon, a California couple with 2 small children decided to get off I-5 in Southern Oregon, cut over to the coast, and drive south along 101. Their GPS sent them over a county road, Black Bear Road, which was little more than a slightly improved logging road. It was winter, they got caught in a blizzard, their Subaru all wheel drive rig got high centered, and there they were..for days. No cell service there. Hubby decided to hike for help, not dressed for the weather. He died. Pure luck mother and children were found...the official searches were called off. But one person had a friend with a chopper, had the thought, called his friend; "Let's check out Black Bear road." On another day, mother & children would also have been gone.

I think where GPS shines is in city navigation...all streets well known and maintained..
But in low or no population areas? Stick to the main roads and carry map & compass...

[john70t]

I once relied on GPS and toured all the backwater towns throughout central Florida instead of zipping up the highway.
That probably added 5 hrs to the drive

[A930Rocket]

I use GPS all the time, but as noted, look at the overall map and the alternative routes.

[pete3799]

GPS can get you in trouble around here.
I got a call one winter night (I was road foreman at the time) from Hanover Dispatch.
An ambulance needed assistance (stuck). Only trouble was they couldn't tell me exactly where they were at (no cell service around here).
They did tell me what address they were headed to though. Ambulance service for our area comes from the town of Barre so i knew what roads they would likely take........nope can't find them. Tried a few different routes....nope.
Long story short i found out the ambulance was on the way back from a previous call (Cottage Hospital in N.H.) when this call came in.

After checking every maintained road they could have taken i put the tire chains on and eventually found them half way up a class 4 (non maintained) road. Got them pulled out, backed them up a half mile, plowed out a spot for them to turn around and got them going.

Another ambulance had already been dispatched.... all turned out ok.

One of many who have chosen the wrong path.

[flatbutt]

I use GPS exclusively when traveling IN a city I don't know. Interstate travel is by my nose and rural travel is with a paper map...Butler mostly.

[oldE]

I'm old school, so when we headed to France for 2 weeks in 2015, I got a Michelin atlas for the country. I also checked out Google maps for a couple of tricky intersections between the airport and our accommodation. My buddy, who had used GPS on his trip a couple of years before, updated his device and brought it along. Within 20 minutes he had to shut it off, as it depicted us to be driving through a field, when we were clearly on a road built perhaps three years before.

Best
Les

[cabmandone]

If I'm going somewhere I've never gone before I'll typically print off directions and then use GPS.

[LakeCleElum]

These women left Oregon heading for Utah and somehow took a long wrong turn thru Northern Idaho....I was Driving around Hayden Lake, ID when they were found about 20 miles away. Knowing where they were, you'd have to try really hard to get that far off the beaten path. News articles say mother was quite elderly and daughter was mentally challenged.

[porsche tech]

I have onboard GPS in one of my cars and when I pull out of my garage it takes several minutes for it to figure out where I am. During those several minutes the picture on the screen usually shows me driving around in the ocean. Bought the car used, would never pay for it on a new car…iPhone works great! Back when I was still working, Porsche had the worst GPS. Best one I saw was a customer had a hand held Garmin suction cupped to the navigation screen on his Cayenne.

[herr_oberst]

GPS will take you through FS roads if you're not careful. It's happened to me a time or two and I was glad I was in a 4WD pickup in good weather rather than a family car in the middle of winter.

[GH85Carrera]

It really is not the GPS, it the lousy maps that the program is using the GPS data.

On one trip in Virginia I was leading, and a friend in his 997 was following. It was lunch time and we decided to find a restaurant with the GPS. I was in the lead and the picked restaurant was punched into my Garmin GPS. It took us into a neighborhood and said to continue but the road stopped at some persons driveway. He said his Porsche GPS was telling him the same thing.

We went back to the road, and picked another restaurant and found sustenance.

It that case, the maps provided to two different makers were simply wrong.

In Boca Raton, Florida I had my brother with me trying to get back to our hotel. My GPS said there was road construction and rerouted us. It took us to a dead end. So I had my brother use his Android phone GPS to find the hotel, and I asked my iPhone to find the hotel.

It was sudden GPS hell, we had three women's voices giving us three different routes and one intersection. Literally on said turn left, one said turn right, and one said go straight. Not one was correct, as we had to try all three options after driving in circles. I finally said screw this, as I could see the hotel on the other side of the bay. We drove by dead reckoning and all of a sudden all three devices agreed on the route.

We were laughing pretty hard, tow long married guys with the voices of three women telling us where to go, and not one was right! It took a man to figure it out.