Clueless Driver Follows GPS Directions Onto Train Tracks

No age limit for bad behavior behind wheel

(NEWSER) - One-third of 16- and 17-year-olds say they have written text messages while behind the wheel. Despite that, young drivers are actually more responsible than many adults: 48% of respondents aged 12 to 17 say they’ve been in the car with a driver who was texting. One boy said his dad “drives like he's drunk. His phone is just like sitting right in front of his face, and he puts his knees on the bottom of the steering wheel and tries to text." More»

(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.” More»

(NEWSER) - As the US moves away from a gasoline-only auto culture, researchers and the government are investigating alternative taxes to fund road-building and maintenance, the Kansas City Star reports. The leading idea to supplant the gas tax is a by-the-mile approach endorsed by a federal commission. “If you’re committed to the system being improved then it was a no-brainer,” the chairman said. More»

Woman who slammed into victim at 70 mph said phone wasn't involved

(NEWSER) - A UK woman who sent more than 20 text messages while driving before crashing into a stopped car and killing another motorist has been sentenced to 21 months in jail, the Times reports. Philippa Curtis, 21, said she was not using the phone when she plowed into Victoria McBryde at 70 mph in 2007 and was able to text while keeping her eyes on the road. More»

Developers finally realize personality as important as function

(NEWSER) - GPS voices, for all their helpfulness to drivers, are still obnoxious and humorless. Now, after years of focusing on packing “navbots” with information, developers are realizing that friendliness counts, too, the Washington Post reports. “Personality, from an engineering perspective, is still an afterthought,” one says. “But every day it's becoming more and more important.” More»