Another near death by GPS story

Many people blindly follow their GPS, this is the result.

I learned a few years ago that the GPS is a nice aid but, that's about it. An aid. ;)

Lots of things wrong in that camping trip navigation in remote areas.

No preplanning with sky view mapping and paper map backup- you can easily get lost in close details.
No GPS receiver that does not need cell service
No personal locator beacon for satellite capture
No flare gun
No orange smoke
No hand and foot warmers
I'm sure many can add to the list.

If one is going to camp in cold snow remote areas it is best not to play at it. They were very fortunate to get out.

Darwin award indeed. I never cease to be amazed at the level of stupidity some people reach. There recently was a similar situation here in British Columbia. They were driving from Calgary to LA when their GPS led them onto a logging road, they apparently didn't realize they had a problem until they got stuck trying to turn around. He walked back an hour before he got a cell signal to call for help.:S

Double post

Years ago in a Japan there was a GPS glitch that led cars down a boat ramp into the water.
It was not a rare occurrence as I remember.

My GPS once tried to direct me across a schoolyard full of little children playing....
Strange thing.
I could see the road on the other side of the schoolyard so I detoured around the school, all the while shaking my head in amazement.
I've had many misleadings from that little electronic gadget. I guess what most people don't realize is that it's only as good as the people who write the mapping software.

Ya gotta know "when to hold and when to fold"

Imo this was not gps error
The news report says the GPS alerted them to hw67 being closed
This is where you turn around and go back the way you came from
Not look for an Alternative route, not go down a forest road

Glad they are all safe, but this was bad judgement

a GPS unit should be used for amusement purposes only. Their direction should be taken with a grain of salt.

1320Fastback wrote:
Years ago in a Japan there was a GPS glitch that led cars down a boat ramp into the water.
It was not a rare occurrence as I remember.

GPS glitches are sometimes caused by the maps being a little bit off. The mapping software places the vehicle on the road even if the actual gps position is not right on the road. If it did not jump to the road one would see oneself driving on the left or right of the actual color mapped road. This jump to marked road correction can be substantial in older gps units with less sophisticated software and less accurate maps.
If a turn is almost correctly positioned on a map the vehicle will appear to make the turn correctly and stick to the line on the displayed map.

There is a road in Newfoundland that the displayed vehicle on the iPad had me driving a considerable distance away from but parallel to the road. In essence I was driving in the woods next to the road which was not the real case. I suddenly jumped back on the road as I got closer to the real road and the software decided that I must be in fact on the real road and corrected my displayed position. In some mapping programs one can turn off this jump to road position fix and see just all the funnies that are masked. I suspect that as the maps improve and position determination is more accurate that this off track effect occurs less and less.
Doug

IMHO a GPS is good for alerting you to which lane to get in on a highway, and thus somewhat helpful in an unfamiliar city.

They suck in rural and/or remote areas.

Even in a city I take a look at a map and get a general idea of the route beforehand.