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So the GPS told the guy to cross the tracks, and instead of yielding to an oncoming train, he just decided to cross at the exact time the GPS suggested it? I suppose if the GPS said to cross an intersection, the guy would ignore the stop light as well?

This isn't the GPS' fault. The assumption, for anyone with common sense, is that you follow the rules of the road WHILE you're following the directions the unit gives you. It's no different than having a passenger tell you how to get somewhere - you still stop for trains!

The worst thing my GPS ever did was get me lost on my first day at a new job, but that's because the city I work in has many streets with the same name, so it's very easy to get messed up.

Since the first time I used one and it kept saying "WARNING ROAD ENDS" the entire route to my sister's house (which I had traveled many times), I have never bothered with a GPS.

My GPS is always telling me to "make a U-turn" when it doesn't like the direction I am going. U-turns are not only dangerous but are also illegal here...

@ confusednazgul:

I'm not debating that the driver in question isn't a dummy, but what happened was that he DROVE ONTO train tracks when his GPS told him it was a road.

He was basically driving in a narrow space going head-on with a train.

I thought that maybe people would use common sense to pull over to the side of the road when looking at these things...

sort of different, but I once borrowed a friend's gps to get to the airport, and after 20 minutes of awkward backroads and an estimated 5.5 hours until arrival (i live 15 miles away), I realized it was set to "pedestrian mode". I felt like an idiot for putting so much trust in this silly little machine and abandoning my common sense. sorry to sound judgmental, but these folks should feel like idiots too.

This reminds me of "The Office" when Michael Scott is directed to "turn left(or right, I can't remember)," so instead of turning at the intersection 30 in front of him, he turns left immediately and drives down a boat launch into a lake. haha, still makes me laugh

*30 feet

slipperymarshmallow, I love that episode! :)

I use the GPS nav on my blackberry, but I don't really follow it EXACTLY.
It was really helpful when I went on a roadtrip from LA to Napa Valley to SF to Monterey back down the PCH to LA. But when I'm using it in semi-familiar areas, I just use it for assistance, not necessarily as a guide. Especially since it's SO slow and I end up missing have of the turn it wants me to make. And there's never really any point in making a u-turn, I don't even know why they have that as an option... especially when it always tells me to make a u-turn at a light where not only are you not allowed to make a u-turn, but it's also pretty friggin impossible.

Ugh. Technology is dumb sometimes.

I use my GPS...but I don't trust it. It's useful at times, but I never just blindly follow the directions.

We have sat nav, my boyfriend got it when he moved here (I'm a local), he loves it and I am constantly at odds with it. I literally argue with it out loud in the car. It's been useful when I need to know how to get to somewhere I've never been before, but most of the time I know where we're going better than it does. I esecially hate the U-turn directions it gives. Fortunately, our model sounds less annoyed and ready to kill you than my parents'. Theirs tried to get them to turn around for twenty miles and go back to the interstate on their last road trip.