Just about everyone knows what a GPS is and how it’s replaced the Shell or maybe the Mobile road map. Road map? Ya know, that thing that wives say husbands never stop to read when they think we’re lost. That road map. Yeah, I know, us guys don’t need no stinking road map and to be perfectly macho, we don’t need no GPS either until we’ve crossed the same state line 4 times. Then we stop at a convenience store for a stretch and a cup of coffee and secretly ask the cashier where the heck we’re going. I digress., Most GPS rigs have a voice like Siri or some such which guides us through traffic and informs us that we’ve missed our turn. Notably, I really do not like having the GPS voice on because I always think that someone’s looking over my shoulder and pointing where to go and then chewing me out if I do not do exactly what she says. Kinda like a mother-in-law. Here’s a twist in the system I think you guys might like.
The video was funny but when I started sailing we were using Loran which was a triangulation of radio stations it was fair but not accurate. then we started using GPS and they would not give us the accuracy and then the makers said they would change over to the Russian system. Then they gave us the accuracy and it became a boon to navigation. I could interface it with nautical maps on the computer and watch my boat in real time sailing across the map. There was a few funny times when the maps were not that accurate. One time sailing in the Bahamas we wanted to go into a bay to a marina. We sail to the channel marker buoy and then steered the boat visually into the bay and marina. After tying up the boat I looked at the computer and found we sailed over a air strip and gulf course.
Pretty funny. And I was all prepared for a "They're tracking your every move" rant, or the government proctologist telling me to "Not mind the wires." But real country directions always reference where stuff used to be. I've never used a nav system until I got my new car a couple of years ago, not even a phone app. Before that it was Mapquest and a notepad, and before that it was street maps where the index would direct you to Page 132, Grid AD/32. I always liked knowing where I was going and what my frame of reference was. Like most new vehicles, my Mazda has one built in, and I love it. But I still look up directions on the web beforehand so I have an idea of the region.
We go on our iPhone to the name of the place we are going, tap on "Directions" and follow that. Most of the time, don't have a problem with that. We do keep a large map book in the vehicle to use as another reference. One time, however, when we had regular non-internet flip phones, we used our old marine-vehicle GPS. The GPS could be used in our boat or switched over to use in our vehicle. We used it to find someplace in Jacksonville, FL, but the business had moved and the GPS had not updated. So, we called the place and got directions.
I just recently got rid of my 12 year old Garmin. Car has built in GPS plus map app on my phone does too. I still see an occasional glitch, but none that have ever caused an issue.
The only thing I don't like about GPS systems on the road is that I find it difficult to plan a trip for long distances. I find them okay for finding places in locales where I have never been, but if I have to plan a trip over several days and have to plan where I want to be on each day of the rip in order to plan hotel reservations and such, it is impossible (for me) to do.