Fault: It is the Driver, not the GPS

I keep reading news stories about another person whose GPS (aka, Sat Nav) has "led" him/her into danger. It is total crap. The GPS is not controlling the vehicle; the human being behind the steering wheel is controlling the vehicle. Unfortunately, the way many headlines are worded, it appears to be the fault of the GPS.

Say you are driving. You have directions (from a GPS, a paper map, or whatever). You come to a traffic light. You need to go through the light, but it is red. Do you stop at the light? Of course. So why do people keep driving onto train tracks when a train is coming, going down streets that are too narrow, going where there is no road at all, and generally ignoring warning signs?

If you want to read more about it, I recommend starting with this recent article on Engadget. There are links in the article which take you to more articles with more links. (Note that I'm not sure if all of the pictures that Engadget use come from the actual incidents.)

At this point, all I can say is that I hope that these incidents are in the minority and stay that way. But, with GPS finding its way into more and more cars, who knows what the future will bring.