11–20 of 56 posts
Yep, don't trust Maps or Waze, you can get shot in Brazil if you use it blindly. Always force it to suggest main routes, even if suggest a route with less traffic.
How can it get you shot?
I don't like how it is "because we trusted screens" A physical map that was marked the same way and touted as being up to date would have caused the exact same problem. At some point things are not going to work and you're going to have rely on human judgement. It sounds like trust was built up enough over time that such reliance was second nature.
Well, one edition of some Thomas Guide had this street connecting.
Every 5 or so years, some poor, poor, truck driver would get stuck on the hill, and need to carefully reverse down this tiny street and its ridiculous hill. One year, a giant semi hauling glass windows got stuck at the top of the dead end. He was unable to reverse, and so we had to call every neighbor to move their cars off of the hill to give the driver room to turn around. Took most of the day.
...
> And it was all Google Maps’ fault.
I mean, it was 100 % your fault, but you can blame a stupid phone if it makes you feel better about having zero common sense, and being a poor driver.
So, yeah, Google Maps sent the author down the wrong way, but how are paper maps going to be any better? The paper maps aren't going to know that those roads are closed, either. What does the author propose as an alternative? He's in Sicily, so he can't rely on his own built-up knowledge. Maybe he's suggesting asking locals, but nothing's stopping him from doing that, and it's not so easy. So yeah, online maps have d…
The road wasn't closed. Google Maps was wrong. And with a paper map, you would have the intuition that it might be stale, so you ask a local. Whereas Google Maps is marketed as the latest and greatest and most up-to-date, so you wind up trusting it, even over your own senses sometimes! The trust is the mistake, but it's hard not to fall into that trap when it works reasonably well most of the time. But it's a fragile…
I followed a map and made an error, I'm responsible, someone will be mad at me.
I followed google maps, they are responsible for providing bad directions, so it's not my error, you should be mad at google, not me.
So, yeah, Google Maps sent the author down the wrong way, but how are paper maps going to be any better? The paper maps aren't going to know that those roads are closed, either. What does the author propose as an alternative? He's in Sicily, so he can't rely on his own built-up knowledge. Maybe he's suggesting asking locals, but nothing's stopping him from doing that, and it's not so easy. So yeah, online maps have d…
The road wasn't closed. Google Maps was wrong. And with a paper map, you would have the intuition that it might be stale, so you ask a local. Whereas Google Maps is marketed as the latest and greatest and most up-to-date, so you wind up trusting it, even over your own senses sometimes! The trust is the mistake, but it's hard not to fall into that trap when it works reasonably well most of the time. But it's a fragile…
I'm talking about these closed roads.
No, it was your fault.
Paper maps can be, and almost certainly all are, wrong. It is normal to blame a paper map if you sail off the edge of the Earth where the map says there ought to be more sea?
Even if you run into an island where there should be no island, or drive into a space that should be fit for cars but is not, your hands are on the wheel and your feet are on the pedals.
>Consider this: have you ever been in a situation where you’ve seen a beautiful landscape or watched something funny happening and your first thought is, “how can I take a picture of this for Instagram?”
No.
Something is wrong with this person's brain.
>And it was all Google Maps’ fault. No, it was your fault. Paper maps can be, and almost certainly all are, wrong. It is normal to blame a paper map if you sail off the edge of the Earth where the map says there ought to be more sea? Even if you run into an island where there should be no island, or drive into a space that should be fit for cars but is not, your hands are on the wheel and your feet are on the pedals.…