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Your GPS Is Probably Evil

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff

Posted Jul 11, 2009 8:34 AM CDT

(Newser) – Emily Yoffe is typically a technophobe, but she also has a horrible sense of direction, so she had high hopes for her GPS. “This seemed like a breakthrough that promised only upside,” she writes in the Washington Post. Then she used it. In harrowing trip after harrowing trip, the honey-voiced GPS lady got her lost. Now, she’s “convinced that my GPS was a cross between Lady Macbeth and HAL 9000.”

Even non-GPS owners aren’t safe from its machinations. Yoffe’s in-laws live on a cul-de-sac that GPSes persist in believing to be a through-road. They get a steady stream of lost souls; once, one blew up his car in their yard. He told police he’d snapped when he realized the GPS had led him astray. Crazy? Sure. But “when Lady MacGPS sends you astray, it feels like being lost on the Scottish moor, awaiting the crack of doom.”

A man attaches his new GPS navigation device to his windshield in his vehicle.
A man attaches his new GPS navigation device to his windshield in his vehicle.   (AP Photo/Lisa Poole)
The Magellan RoadMate 1200 features an ultra-slim, pocket-sized form factor that offers turn it on and go auto navigation functionality.
The Magellan RoadMate 1200 features an ultra-slim, pocket-sized form factor that offers "turn it on and go" auto navigation functionality.
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 9 comments
inky
Jul 13, 2009 7:52 AM CDT
Another advantage to living near the Pacific Ocean in SoCal. The ocean is west. The other way is east. (And there is no life east of Interstate 5) If the beach is to your left, you're going north. If the beach is to your right, you're going south.
lonewolf17
Jul 12, 2009 9:48 AM CDT
I hate GPSes. Maybe its because I'm a delivery driver and hate how the things are terrible at routing, or maybe its because I like the feel of an actual map in my hands...I don't know.
Mjoh3
Jul 11, 2009 11:13 AM CDT
I love my Garmin !

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