Fred Basset by Alex Graham for May 27, 2021

Too bad you cannot just stick your nose out the window and tell the Dears where to go…

I thought I was the only one who remembered road maps…

Maps are the best. Nothing, and I mean nothing, takes there place. Every single time I have relied on technology, it has been way off the mark. Forget tech. Old school the best school.

Maps often lack the necessary detail as do internet maps and GPS frequently take you into a maze which occasionally has no exit. GPS has locked me into endless loops and once told me I had reached my destination when I was in the middle of a bridge over the Mississippi.

Does the UK’s GPS have an English accent? :D

Always look a a map first , that way you know if the GPS is taking you on the proper route ;-)

GPS will tell you how to get there. Maps will show you where you are.

Maps are superior for planning, like avoiding those hyphenated lines that are actually old, unmaintained logging roads or ancient cattle trails.

Is the cartoonist English? Cuz they’re all driving on the wrong side of the road…

Instead of debating maps and GPS, maybe people should be using both for their best characteristics and not get stuck in some technological argument.

GPS can usually tell you where you actually are which really helps reduce the time you spend searching your map, while the map can give you a better overall view of your situation and backup options.

Of course most app-based direction services also, well, have a map in the app that you could just use.

When this happens to me, I turn off the GPS, drive aimlessly for a few miles, and turn the GPS back on. It usually reorients itself correctly.

Hello, my name is Thomas and I will be your guide. The Thomas Guide.

That’s normal, they have misspelled the name: it should be SATANV

My GPS is probably my favorite device — one of the best pieces of technology this modern age has given us. It helps me find my way in unfamiliar areas and gets me back on course if I make a wrong turn or have to detour.

On rare occasion it also informs me that I’ve reached my destination when that destination is still a quarter mile down the road, or it tells me to make a turn onto a nonexistent road or into a river.

So it’s an imperfect device that uses imperfect software designed by imperfect humans. How do I deal with that? I still have a device called a brain. Good thing I didn’t throw that away when I bought a GPS.

All software is beta. When we’re going somewhere unfamiliar, we use the GPS with my wife checking the map to keep the GPS honest. Works well.

I’ve heard some interesting stories about GPS from various Uber drivers. About the worst was when the GPS was insisting to the driver that he proceed forward to pick up his rider, when the location it was talking about was in the middle of a lake! My worst personal experience, fortunately without harm, was when the GPS constantly told the driver to turn right to get to the nearby hospital/medical office complex, and it was the wrong way on a one-way street! (I moved later on to where I go there by a different route, so I don’t know if that mistake was ever corrected in the GPS).

“Satnav” must be a British word—I’ve never heard it called that over here in the USA.