They’ll pry their high tech navigation from their cold, dead hands: The husband told the responders that the family had been relying on electronic GPS for the fastest route when the truck got stuck, authorities said.
For all the cross-continent driving I do, I still don’t own one.
(link fixed, sorry!)
This…
https://abcnews.go.com/US/texas-family-found-alive-24-hours-missing-national/story?id=67926405
Awesome! Found it just seconds after you!
I’ve got several GPS units, all of which I picked up at a ham flea market that’s held locally every year. The only real use I get out of one of them is to determine which map grid I’m in, something which is of interest to many radio amateurs when they make a contact.
Others than that, I use dead reckoning when I’m on the highway. I make sure I get on the right road and then watch the traffic signs.
In the “old days”, when grain elevators abounded, it was not uncommon to see small planes flying low past them, “checking” to see where they were. One could then follow the railroad tracks, affectionately known as the “Iron Compass”, to your destination, if you were really poor at cross-country navigation. Good old map and compass skills are still an asset if the tech ever fails!
That’s called “IFR”, or “I Follow Railways”. Western aviators tell the joke; “Where are we now, dear?” ” – Hmmm, we just passed the town of “Pool”.”
Throw in roads, and rivers.
When I flew we used radio direction finding. Tune in an AM broadcast station in known city and use the direction compass to fly to that location.
There are numerous stories like this, it’s become a recognised phenomenon that’s now called “Death by GPS”.
Remember the B.C. couple who disappeared somewhere in the northwestern U.S., foul play was suspected? They were bound for Vegas I believe, and looking on a map they discovered they weren’t on their ideal north/south corridor. Their GPS led them up a secondary road, which turned into a trail, then a logging track then petered-out completely. Their car got stuck – GM Astro van, not exactly a gumbo-monster-mudding rig – and the weather turned atrocious. After a long period, he decided to hike-out for help; deer hunters have since found his body. She stayed with the van for about two months, and was eventually found and rescued.
They’re #1 of the five examples in the article: https://methodshop.com/2016/12/death-by-gps.shtml
– And remember, in a situation like this, a cellphone won’t help; the nearest tower is ‘way over the horizon.
That’s one reason I always take one of my hand-held transceivers with me. There have been instances where hams in distress called for assistance and someone happened to be listening on the same frequency.
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you want to live dangerously… drive thru brampton, ontario
“The driver then points the van in the direction of the victim
and accelerates, running over his head and torso with the
right front wheel, before reversing, straightening out and
speeding off.”
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If you own a smartphone with a data plan, you own a “GPS”. It is great for checking traffic flow in real time or as a map. Directions? Not so much…
Yeah, I don’t own one of those either. I will admit to cheating with my friend’s phone when we’re in an urban area looking for a specific address.
You’re not a man if you stop and ask for directions 🙂
Came across an Overwaitea delivery truck sunk in a mud hole, deep enough that water was flowing in the cab. A tribe of white luggered millennials with white shoes perched on the seats, north of the osbourne River, bc. No way we could pull them, we were heading back to ft.st j. About 6 ish, but i gave them hope, there was a cat walking their direction about 20km bAck I told them . He might be able to pull you. Hope he dove deep and found the frame, the bumper was under water. I would expect they may have got back the next day
I have driven about 6 million miles and have never had a g p s I have lots of maps and if I am going somewhere un familiar I plot my route in advance and also throw in a few options.
Yup. The navigational aid between my ears is always more effective than the ones that depends on satellite signals and runs on batteries.
The wife and I have plenty of navigational arguments as she relies 100% on the verbal directions given by her phone’s map apps. If the the app told her to drive off the end of a pier, she’d do it. Sadly, she either cannot, or doesn’t want to read a map. Even the map the phone app is showing her. I’ve tried to convince her that she needs a picture in her mind of where she is headed … but she just gives me a blank stare. I guess some people’s heads are just wired differently.
It’s not only maps. It’s thermostats too.
I now own one; indeed I’m on my second one (Garmin – ask for it by name!), having found-out the hard way that if you leave them on the dashboard plugged-in in sub-zero weather, the battery freezes – and then the first time you unplug it, it will not come back on. Lithium batteries can NOT be left in sub-zero temps; it kills them.
And why did I buy one? We were going somewhere quite hard to find; I pulled-into a roadside conglomeration, including a grocery store, two gas stations, a Micky-D’s and an A&W, and a mini-mall with a Cr@ppy in it – and NOBODY sold road maps anymore. “Oh, everybody uses GPS; no point stocking them.” So went into the Cr@ppy and bit the bullet.
We were stuck in T.O. during the road-paving season with a duff vehicle a couple’a years ago (it was on the hoist for a full week); the Garmin and phone text messaging saved our bacon, multiple times. We call it “GlaDOS” (the supercomputer villain in the Portal video games).
We always plot our route on the map first for any major trip. The GPS is handy for telling distance to the next turn, and the estimated time of arrival.
No matter what you have, it is always best to know how to read a map, know directions from the direction of the sun, etc.
Still usually better than allowing your passenger to read the map especially in strange cities. Ever tried to drive in Milwaukee without one? Keep them updated.
Using GPS as a map and not a route finder is my preference. A pox on people who get in the left lane of a highway for a left lane exit that’s 3 K away while driving 105.
I had 2 Uber drivers in the last week who probably couldn’t read a map but might have been able to guide me better on the Serengeti plain. They were nice people but really weak drivers.
I owned a”Magellan” for years. Was very good. Garmin bought out Magellan.
I bought a new Garmin with a bigger screen thinking I would get the same degree of accuracy. Not!
The Garmin has sent us WRONG to locations (addresses) many times. Very disappointed.
I’ve got an early Garmin GPS receiver, built some 25 years ago. It does everything I need it for, namely it can tell me which Maidenhead Locator grid square I’m in. That’s quite handy if I operate my amateur radio station while on the road. It saves me the problem of figuring out my location co-ordinates and the corresponding grid square.
I bought a later Garmin unit at a ham flea market earlier this year. A lot of frippery was added in between time.
I can say the same about the two Magellan machines I’ve got. Oh, and did you know that Lowrance, the fish finder people, also made a GPS unit? I found that among my late father’s things.
Hard to find technology that triumphs over determined human stupidity.
And let’s face it, determined stupidity is now not only a Canadian characteristic and trait, but a way of life.
It’s like Canada is a millennial, proud in its Liberal ignorance, Liberal virtue signalling and Librano corruption.
I use the GPS on a regular basis as I travel to many cities and some for the first time. Getting out of the airport and onto the right route in some cities is absolutely stupid: Saskatoon I’m talking about you!
Winnipeg is pretty interesting as getting off the main drags to turn to the airport is pretty fun too. Highway 1 (TC) does not connect to the main crossroad to the airport, and then the turn to the airport is not well marked.
GPS is good when in a city for finding locations. I view a map first to be sure I’m getting the right directions before traveling (when possible).
Highway is good for distance to turns and time to destination.
I used some of the early ones when working on for NASCAR in 2001 and 2, they were fun. Not very detailed and often misleading.
I use off-road GPS maps for trailing with my jeep, and for some hiking. Don’t really give much in the way of directions but give you a pretty good idea of where you are and what is around you.
I hear ya on Winnipeg Airport. Too true..!!
I use GPS constantly but never trust it completely. Like with anything “results can vary” and you can’t do anything about stupid.
Not a regular user but have Never have had a problem with gps.
The new canned meat.
I have ZERO compassion for imbeciles like this.
Let them die off in the forest and help clean up the Gene pool.
Relying on a gps and ignoring your surroundings is not exactly brilliant.
IT simply blows me away when you see people blindly ingoring what should be OBVIOUS “signs” that maybe, just maybe we’re not on the right track here…?? And if ya do get “lost”…stay with the bloody vehicle..!!! It will be found long before you will.
(that’s something I learned in a Military Bush Survival course, along w/lots of other very usefull things)
As for a GPS, yep, I’ve got one .. a garmin Nuvi 3850 .. and the best thing about it, is that it has a white on black screen with speed, direction and a few other gauges & NO MAP. I use it as my speedometer. If I ever need directions or want to plan a route, I’ve got one of those US/Canada books..the big RED one.
GPS is fine as long as ya take it with a grain of salt. It can and will make ya go around in circles if ya let it.
I’ve been every where you could drive a vehicle in this country and some you made your own route. Some of those “roads” had stuff growing out of them, they were that well used. Never got stuck, in snow or mud, but slid off the road a few times (winter) and dug myself out before anyone else showed. If the route got iffy, I generally turned around if all indications I was the first person up a “road” in a while and the “road” became not a road. Even that was cause for some trepidation in spots.
Never used a GPS, only maps and a compass, “out there”. Even when GPS became the norm. I kept a supply of 1:250000 and 1:50000 scale topos for areas I worked over the years. Other than that just the usual ESSO maps. The truck(s) I drove ( Chev, Ford, Toyota) carried all the stuff required to dig, fill, cut, or be hauled out of trouble. In case somebody else happened to be “out there”. I operated on the premise that there was nobody out there, but you. Fixed more flats with just a Crappy Tire dash pump and some tire repair kits, even a getting a tire up on the rim. Color me surprised.
Never used a GPS, only maps and a compass, “out there”. I kept a supply of 1:250000 and 1:50000 scale topos for areas I worked over the years. Other than that just the usual ESSO maps, for each Province. Camping gear and lots of lunch.
GPS is an incredible achievement. It can bring you to a few meters of your destination. It can also mire you in a swamp. It’s just a tool and the results depend on the skill of the user. All devices and people are fallible. You can die either way ?
You should also remember the US government can mess up the signals to confuse you any time they want or through general incompetence. The other systems have the same problems.
I use GPS all the time. I trust it none of the time, because it is frequently wrong.
In Phoenix AZ I trust it a lot less than usual, because the “best route” often leads through the worst neighborhood. There is a reason there’s no traffic on 7th Avenue at Highway 10, and that reason is occasional gunfire.
Canadians turning up their nose right now will please note that the random gunfire issue in Toronto will soon reach the same level as Phoenix. It really won’t be long, at the current rate of increase. Then you will all be updating your GPS with the no-go zones for Mississauga, Brampton and Scarborough. And Pickering, for God’s sake, they wounded three people in a car on the 401. Are you kidding me, Toronto?
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“random gunfire issue”…
still less unsettling than the “urban yout’ catch & release program.”
Live and don’t learn… that’s us…
“All other charges, including four counts of attempted murder,
were withdrawn.”
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About 20 years ago I bought a Magellan 315 for air navigation. I used to fly north with my friend in his float plane to go fishing. He had a Garmin, which was much more expensive, but was no better. My little 315 never failed me. Got us to various destinations and home again many times.
It had no maps – co-ordinates only. Just follow the destination arrow on the compass rose. It really worked well.
Ground speed readouts were dead on. Not much good for road navigation though.
Trying to get to Greektown on the Danforth from the DVP, the GPS screaming at the stepson “turn left, turn left”, I pointed out the sign “Danforth keep right”. 20 minutes later we were back in the same spot………..
Garmin bought out Magellan. They also bought out the best remote control dog training equipment manufacturer, Tritronics. In no time at all, the Tritronic/Garmin controllers began to have all sorts of quality control issues. My supplier informed me that they off shored the manufacture fro the USA to, you guessed it, China. It got so bad that he stopped selling them because they would not honor the warranties.
Shame.