> If we’re being honest, it’s not that hard to imagine doing something similar ourselves. Most of us use GPS as a crutch while driving through unfamiliar terrain, tuning out and letting that soothing voice do the dirty work of navigating.
It is very difficult for me to imagine driving 250 miles out of the way (especially when I'm tired and really want to get where I'm going); or driving into the ocean; or driving off a bridge because I've ignored all the road closed signs. I don't even shut my brain off to this degree when another human is helping navigate.
The article is saying our cognitive maps are deteriorating because navigation software provides the information instantly at hand. For some people that may be true. I've noticed this effect in other aspects of my life, though not with navigation. But even if true, that does not explain people ignoring all other indicators that something is not correct.
This sounds like a remix of one of the many "internet is making us dumb" stories. If anything the existence of GPS, satellite, constantly updated maps, and now detailed 3D city maps makes our "cognitive maps" (whatever that means) far better now than in the past where our navigation was done from printed Rand McNally folding map.
The reality is there are a lot of impaired drivers on the road. May be they have been drinking, have early onset dementia, or just a mixture of prescription medications with undocumented side effects. A lot have spent half the time sending text messages on their phones. Whatever the circumstance, some of the tools we have now let them survive longer or at least pretend they know what they are doing.
I know that my own navigational skills have atrophied - I used to be able to glance at a map in an unknown area and that'd be all I'd need to get to X. I can't do that anymore these days. I wouldn't do the 250-mile excursion (I'm nowhere near that bad), but the bit that puzzles me is the stories of the people who drive into obstacles - GPS is a navigator, it doesn't change the nature of driving itself. You wouldn't drive through a red light because that's where your GPS was directing you, so why would you drive into an obstacle?
If I know a trip should take about two hours, and after three hours I'm not there, I know something went wrong. That's a good time to stop and reassess the situation.
This reminds me of a trip I was on a couple of years ago. I was traveling from Italy to France, and wanted to make a visit to a friend in Switzerland on the way. I never drove that route before, so I just typed the friend's address into the GPS and followed every turn. It made me go on a really curvy and steep road up the Alps, than equally curvy and steep down. The road was wet from the melting ice/snow (it was a summer trip) and at one point I went through a foggy area which looked like I was driving through the clouds.
It was a pretty interesting experience, but I kept thinking that it was strange that there were basically no other cars in either direction. When I got to the bottom I saw why: this road was merging with a tunnel which goes directly underneath the path I took, saving you a couple of hours of driving. Live and learn.
So the GPS took you into a lonesome journey of introspection, man and machine conquering a demanding road through the beautiful scenery of the summer Alps... instead of directing you to through a boring, overcrowded tunnel? Seems pretty good to me!
Everyone laughs at these mistakes, including me. Mine happened while holidaying in the Lake District, we were planning to hike to Scafell Pike (highest point in England), from Seathwaite. So we rolled out of our tent at 5am, got in the car, punched Seathwaite into the sat nav, and drove. We passed ominous warning signs. We thought that sounded reasonable for the highest point in England so we ploughed on.
We did get out the car at Seathwaite an hour or more later, feeling slightly puzzled as we had recollections it was about 30 minutes away from the campground. We put it down to google underestimating the time taken to go on the slightly scary steep, single track roads.
After stretching our legs, we consulted our actual map + walking instructions and couldn't get anything to match up. We flagged down a local and they pointed out that there's another Seathwaite about ten miles away as the crow flies and that was probably the one we wanted. The catch was that three mountains lay between us. I've rarely felt so embarrassed. The drive over the Wrynose and Hard Knott pass was very picturesque though.
While driving in Bavaria my wife was programming the GPS. Since she new nothing of umlauts (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umlaut) we ended up going to a tiny farming community rather than a town near Schloß Neuschwanstein. Luckily, a suitable castle also constructed by King Ludwig can be found in nearly every part of Bavaria, a few minutes searching turned one up, and it turned into an unexpectedly wonderful day.
Honestly, it wouldn't hurt for the software to have some warnings and confirmations for trips that exceed 3 hours.
I've been burned by this myself since I still used an old Garmin far past its expiry date - trying to avoid a border toll while I was visiting Buffalo, it tried to send me the complete wrong direction and I only stopped when I noticed the arrival time said 9am and not 9pm... I was unfamiliar with the area so it would be easy to not realize my mistake, I only checked the device when it became obvious when I'd been on the road too long for what was supposed to be a shortish drive.
Similarly, in New Brunswick it tried to have me shortcut through an increasingly-rugged wasteland of logging roads. It took me an hour of backtracking to extricate myself from that. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.
Every navigation device I've used will show the estimated drive time, distance, and a map. I always do a quick sanity check on these before I start following the directions. Do other people not do this?
Google maps isn't free from these problems. This past autumn it routed a lot of people down an impassable sandy desert road that serves a state prison. So many people were thus diverted that there was a line of stuck cars in the middle of nowhere.
I guess a GPS navigator is not an excuse for not having a map or not knowing how to read one, at least on longer out of town trips. I've been burned a number of times when a gps navigator tried to take a 'shorter route' through logging roads and mountain passes that you could cross only on foot.
I trusted Google Maps untill few weeks ago it sent us down a road that became undriveable and dangerous -- costing us about two hrs. Although, this did happen in Martinique, for the most part I've had good experiencea with Google Maps in US.
I have anecdata here. A single lane, paved but rough road, signed 'no entry for deliveries' regularly has delivery vehicles coming up it because their GPS navigator told them to.
The sign is large.
The track is almost half a mile long and has nowhere to turn around at the end.
It is very difficult to get the navigation providers to remove this private access from the maps. Even if they do, there are many people who will never update their satnav software.
This lack of updating may become an increasing problem as roads change and hardware ages, but directions remain the same.
The only GPS mishap I've ever had was when Google maps got me in an infinite loop.
I was driving into San Francisco from the East bay, and when I got over the bay bridge, Google had me get off the freeway, turn a few times, and I ended up right back on the freeway, going back over the bridge. I realized right away what was happening after I got back on the freeway, but there were no more exits, so I had to drive to treasure island, and turn around.
That wasn't so bad, but once I crossed the bridge again, I kept following the GPS and ended up right back on the bridge.
Google Maps would try to get me to do this every time I drove over the bridge for a couple of weeks, but I never fell for it again.
This was around the time that they were building the new east bridge, so I wondered if it had anything to do with that but I can't imagine how it would.
Late last year a friend of mine was involved in a car accident.
The other driver was following the Google Maps directions on their phone which told them to go down a one way street, it just happened to be the wrong direction. Luckily no one was hurt.
People really need to pay attention when they drive and read the road signs. Just because the GPS says to go down a street, doesn't mean you are allowed to go down it the wrong way.
Yup, source data is one of the issues here: I had Waze send me up one-way streets more than once. (Okay...there's a community map editor, let's fire that up and fix this. "You can't edit a road, you need Magic Editor Points." Oookay, how do I get Magic Editor Points? "You get points by making edits..." and you need points to do that.
Well take that editor and shove it, I'm in no mood for a Catch-22.)
Reminds me of a time when I was using GPS to get around Vancouver Island.
Rather than taking me on the real highway I got directed to a "highway" that was a narrow mountain logging road. I did realize exactly what was going on and decided to keep going in my Subaru Outback for the sake of the adventure. Eventually did get through. Then there was this time in Utah where my GPS decided that following the powerlines on what was sometimes not even a road was better than going around. One of the locals hearing the story later joked you should never use a GPS in Utah. In both cases I knew the GPS was crazy but as long as I could safely continue I went on for the sake of the adventure... If things got too hairy I'd simply turn around...
I have a good counter-example. I was traveling to Shenzhen and I had a faxed address and directions for the hotel. It was in Chinese, which I can't read. About an hour into what should have been a 20 minute trip, it occurred to me I was being taken somewhere entirely different. I turned on data roaming, figuring that could not be more expensive than ending up two hours away from my hotel at 3am. A search in English turned up local results with labels in Chinese. The driver had to drop me at the taxi garage to wait for a driver going in the right direction, so I got to see what a Chinese taxi company looks like at 2am, but was spared a lengthier adventure.
Article freely conflates GPS with software navigation. Over of these things works perfectly while the other has technical and usability quirks still not solved.
There's no need to be pedantic about that. GPS navigation Hardware and software branded itself as "GPS" for a long time, you can't blame the public and the media for conflating them now.
Exactly. There were and always will be stupid people, it's not technologies to blame. If not blindly following GPS to death, they would choke on spoon or smth anyway. I'm actually glad to see that natural selection works even in the digital age.
Lots of People rely on GPS navigation without checking. This tells us how well it works and nothing else.
As an OSM-editor I know the map has many errors. (Not in my neighborhood mind you.) So when I strapped a Garmin loaded with OSM to my bicycle I knew what to expect. Sometimes I let it navigate my destination even when I know the route I want to take. Then I watch the device give me suggestions to know whether the map works. Found quite a few details that break navigation in OSM. Used that way you get immune to the urge to follow everything the device tells you. I have yet to attempt cycling down stairs that were recorded as path.
One common occurrence is the device insisting on you to turn around; its estimates getting longer and longer. A few later villages later in your journey you cross the nodes where the road was not correctly connected in OSM and the device is suddenly happy again.
When I'm somewhere I don't know, and OSM is reliable in that area, I find navigation very comfortable to use and it's saved me a lot of brain cycles.
Back in the summer I found an oddity on the map what I wanted to explore for the sake of it. It was on the way back from a customer's house and I had the rest of the afternoon off, so it was great timing.
I navigated the waypoints and tracks as the map directed but one of the track's surfaces was degenerating beyond practical travel. I didn't mind a bit of mud, but didn't feel like drowning :-)
After another bend, it was clear the mud wasn't getting better. I turned round and headed back home, as the alternate routes weren't really practical. This story ends with not a lot happening.
I find stories such as the headline, and others in the comments, are very difficult to relate to. I suppose this is because I take in information I see in real-time and allow myself to make decisions on the fly. I'm sure there's a part of the brain involved which must be inhibited in some way that allows blind following of instruction, be it made by a device or other way.
An even more troubling aspect is the increasing lack of ability for our pilots to fly by hand instead of relying on the autopilot. A large number of accidents today, like the Asiana 214 that went into the SFO airport sea wall, could easily be avoided if either the PIC or the FO pay attention to what's happening around them instead of having their eyes glued to the colorful shiny dials. Take Asiana 214 - the PIC had pulled engine power to idle, flew far too low on his approach to runway 28L, expected automation to pick up slack, didn't bother to visually check if things were all right, and crashed into the sea wall.
Self Driving cars rely on exactly this same data. (Read all the stories from other HN members in this thread on bad data, it's not always the user's fault.)
Despite all the hype I don't expect general purpose self driving cars ever. At best we'll have some interstate express lanes exclusively designed for self driving cars, and that's about it.
"Ever" is a long time. Though I agree insofar as it's probably further out than a lot of people are assuming.
But, yes, it will be a long time before maps are sufficiently good across wide areas of the rural US (much less the world as a whole) to enable self-driving. The situation when you start talking about unpaved roads becomes even more problematic.
[+] [-] cgriswald|10 years ago|reply
It is very difficult for me to imagine driving 250 miles out of the way (especially when I'm tired and really want to get where I'm going); or driving into the ocean; or driving off a bridge because I've ignored all the road closed signs. I don't even shut my brain off to this degree when another human is helping navigate.
The article is saying our cognitive maps are deteriorating because navigation software provides the information instantly at hand. For some people that may be true. I've noticed this effect in other aspects of my life, though not with navigation. But even if true, that does not explain people ignoring all other indicators that something is not correct.
[+] [-] AJ007|10 years ago|reply
The reality is there are a lot of impaired drivers on the road. May be they have been drinking, have early onset dementia, or just a mixture of prescription medications with undocumented side effects. A lot have spent half the time sending text messages on their phones. Whatever the circumstance, some of the tools we have now let them survive longer or at least pretend they know what they are doing.
[+] [-] vacri|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nkrisc|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] work-on-828|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] shadeless|10 years ago|reply
It was a pretty interesting experience, but I kept thinking that it was strange that there were basically no other cars in either direction. When I got to the bottom I saw why: this road was merging with a tunnel which goes directly underneath the path I took, saving you a couple of hours of driving. Live and learn.
[+] [-] JorgeGT|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] desas|10 years ago|reply
We did get out the car at Seathwaite an hour or more later, feeling slightly puzzled as we had recollections it was about 30 minutes away from the campground. We put it down to google underestimating the time taken to go on the slightly scary steep, single track roads.
After stretching our legs, we consulted our actual map + walking instructions and couldn't get anything to match up. We flagged down a local and they pointed out that there's another Seathwaite about ten miles away as the crow flies and that was probably the one we wanted. The catch was that three mountains lay between us. I've rarely felt so embarrassed. The drive over the Wrynose and Hard Knott pass was very picturesque though.
[+] [-] rfreytag|10 years ago|reply
GPS errors can bring good experiences as well.
[+] [-] nsns|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Pxtl|10 years ago|reply
I've been burned by this myself since I still used an old Garmin far past its expiry date - trying to avoid a border toll while I was visiting Buffalo, it tried to send me the complete wrong direction and I only stopped when I noticed the arrival time said 9am and not 9pm... I was unfamiliar with the area so it would be easy to not realize my mistake, I only checked the device when it became obvious when I'd been on the road too long for what was supposed to be a shortish drive.
Similarly, in New Brunswick it tried to have me shortcut through an increasingly-rugged wasteland of logging roads. It took me an hour of backtracking to extricate myself from that. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.
I use Google Maps now.
[+] [-] mikeash|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thrownaway2424|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pampa|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dk8996|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] __bb|10 years ago|reply
The sign is large. The track is almost half a mile long and has nowhere to turn around at the end.
It is very difficult to get the navigation providers to remove this private access from the maps. Even if they do, there are many people who will never update their satnav software.
This lack of updating may become an increasing problem as roads change and hardware ages, but directions remain the same.
[+] [-] ryanmcbride|10 years ago|reply
I was driving into San Francisco from the East bay, and when I got over the bay bridge, Google had me get off the freeway, turn a few times, and I ended up right back on the freeway, going back over the bridge. I realized right away what was happening after I got back on the freeway, but there were no more exits, so I had to drive to treasure island, and turn around.
That wasn't so bad, but once I crossed the bridge again, I kept following the GPS and ended up right back on the bridge.
Google Maps would try to get me to do this every time I drove over the bridge for a couple of weeks, but I never fell for it again.
This was around the time that they were building the new east bridge, so I wondered if it had anything to do with that but I can't imagine how it would.
[+] [-] merpnderp|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] therein|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mcarrano|10 years ago|reply
The other driver was following the Google Maps directions on their phone which told them to go down a one way street, it just happened to be the wrong direction. Luckily no one was hurt.
People really need to pay attention when they drive and read the road signs. Just because the GPS says to go down a street, doesn't mean you are allowed to go down it the wrong way.
[+] [-] unknown|10 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] Piskvorrr|10 years ago|reply
Well take that editor and shove it, I'm in no mood for a Catch-22.)
[+] [-] YZF|10 years ago|reply
Rather than taking me on the real highway I got directed to a "highway" that was a narrow mountain logging road. I did realize exactly what was going on and decided to keep going in my Subaru Outback for the sake of the adventure. Eventually did get through. Then there was this time in Utah where my GPS decided that following the powerlines on what was sometimes not even a road was better than going around. One of the locals hearing the story later joked you should never use a GPS in Utah. In both cases I knew the GPS was crazy but as long as I could safely continue I went on for the sake of the adventure... If things got too hairy I'd simply turn around...
[+] [-] Zigurd|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thrownaway2424|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Pxtl|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lolc|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pampa|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] njharman|10 years ago|reply
How many people have been lost in dangerous situation but were able to get to safety due to GPS navigation?
How many people are balls stupid and will win a Darwin Award regardless of what technology the use or don't.
[+] [-] kbart|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lolc|10 years ago|reply
As an OSM-editor I know the map has many errors. (Not in my neighborhood mind you.) So when I strapped a Garmin loaded with OSM to my bicycle I knew what to expect. Sometimes I let it navigate my destination even when I know the route I want to take. Then I watch the device give me suggestions to know whether the map works. Found quite a few details that break navigation in OSM. Used that way you get immune to the urge to follow everything the device tells you. I have yet to attempt cycling down stairs that were recorded as path.
One common occurrence is the device insisting on you to turn around; its estimates getting longer and longer. A few later villages later in your journey you cross the nodes where the road was not correctly connected in OSM and the device is suddenly happy again.
When I'm somewhere I don't know, and OSM is reliable in that area, I find navigation very comfortable to use and it's saved me a lot of brain cycles.
[+] [-] proactivesvcs|10 years ago|reply
I navigated the waypoints and tracks as the map directed but one of the track's surfaces was degenerating beyond practical travel. I didn't mind a bit of mud, but didn't feel like drowning :-)
After another bend, it was clear the mud wasn't getting better. I turned round and headed back home, as the alternate routes weren't really practical. This story ends with not a lot happening.
I find stories such as the headline, and others in the comments, are very difficult to relate to. I suppose this is because I take in information I see in real-time and allow myself to make decisions on the fly. I'm sure there's a part of the brain involved which must be inhibited in some way that allows blind following of instruction, be it made by a device or other way.
[+] [-] korginator|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aaron695|10 years ago|reply
Dam GPS, these days I would have realised sooner and not had that adventure.
[+] [-] ars|10 years ago|reply
Despite all the hype I don't expect general purpose self driving cars ever. At best we'll have some interstate express lanes exclusively designed for self driving cars, and that's about it.
[+] [-] ghaff|10 years ago|reply
But, yes, it will be a long time before maps are sufficiently good across wide areas of the rural US (much less the world as a whole) to enable self-driving. The situation when you start talking about unpaved roads becomes even more problematic.
[+] [-] sccxy|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Piskvorrr|10 years ago|reply
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xta1/t31.0...