Trusting your GPS can end you up in deep water
Sometimes we rely too much on what our GPS is telling us. In the UK it seems that they take that trust to a whole new level. Twice in the last couple of weeks we have seen reports of British drivers that have made serious driving blunders as a result of following the instructions given by their GPS devices over what they are seeing on the road.
The last case we saw involved drivers passing through the village of Luckington and ultimately finding themselves in the Avon River. The drivers were following instructions from their GPS that told them to use a bridge that had been out of service for over a week. Despite the warning signs that are clearly posted and with a large body of water directly ahead, the locals find themselves extracting two cars a day for the last week from the river. Other reports from the UK state instance of driver careening of 100 foot cliffs. Do date, there haven’t been any deaths or critical injuries but it is only a matter of time before something serious happens to drivers that rely on their GPS too heavily.
The lesson to be learned here is to use common sense. As good as technology is, human intellect will always prevail (except in Luckington). GPS devices are designed to be used in addition to good driver judgment not in replacement of. Our eyes have gotten us this far, let’s not totally exclude them from our driving skills regardless of the amount of technology we have.