never-trust-your-GPS horror stories

[kirbykart]

Here's a personal story that relates to this perfectly.

At the end of eighth grade, (if a student had raised enough money through fundraisers) they could go on a trip to Washington DC. I went on that trip, and the boneheadedness of relying solely on GPS quickly set in. First of all, the bus driver got from Cattaraugus to Salamanca... by going through Ellicottville. (In case you don't know, it is much faster to go through Little Valley). Then I thought, once on Route 17, "Oh, all is well, we will follow a somewhat normal routing now". I couldn't have been more wrong.

The driver took Exit 26 and drove right through Downtown Olean. (I can't imagine those tiny roundabouts were easy to navigate in a giant bus!). Then, south of Olean, turns down Cattaraugus County Road 29, crossing into PA. The driver then made umpteen turns, traversing the towns of Eldred, Port Allegany, Roulette, etc. I actually stopped paying attention at this point because the route was so miserably bad.

About 20 minutes later, I start looking around again, and saw we were in a forest. A few minutes later, the bus stops. We all wonder why. Apparently, the engine overheated and some belt broke, all because the driver was taking the giant bus up steep hills in the middle of a forest. (In case you are wondering, the road was PA 44 and this was in the depths of the Susquehanna Forest.) So we were all stranded in the middle of a forest. No cellphone service, and the nearest town was 20 miles away. We got out of the bus, and were all stranded for five and a half hours! By that time, mechanics came to fix the belt of the bus, a process that took about ten minutes.


  Yet another story to prove you should never rely solely on GPS.

[ZLoth]

I sometimes seriously wonder if a time will come when a federal rule is imposed that would prohibit those things in the driver areas of vehicles that need commercial licenses to be operated on pubic roads.

Pubic road? eeewwwww.

I believe that the commercial GPS navigation units have additional map data to account for the vehicle/load weight, truck size, and problem curves that would not be an concern to automotive navigation. Of course, that type of unit costs over $300 while the Google Maps or Apple Maps is FREE.

[kennyshark64]

We had a 2009 Magellan GPS that took us thru some interesting areas in 2010:

The first was in Morgantown, WV.  Our GPS took us thru the parking area of WVU's hospital.

Then on Labor Day weekend, somewhere in west-central Michigan, driving back to Big Rapids from Lake Michigan, we got directed onto a "seasonal road" (read: right on a path going thru a cornfield, something right out of "Twister).

[Scott5114]

The lack of common sense strikes again.

https://www.nbc12.com/2022/11/08/bus-driver-following-gps-takes-students-wrong-state/

Too bad one of us wasn't on the bus, we could have tapped the driver and informed them of their error. 

It wouldn't surprise me if one of the students tried, and the bus driver ignored them.

Or maybe the students just went with the flow, thinking they didn't want to go to their first hour class anyway.

It said in the article that several of the students were upset enough they were texting their parents about it. At least one parent intercepted the bus and demanded their child be let off, and the bus driver's response was to call the cops. Only when the cops told the driver they were going to the wrong place did they turn around.

So I have no doubt that someone told the bus driver they were going the wrong way. And I'm guessing the driver just refused to believe that anyone else could possibly know where they were going better than the GPS did.

[webny99]

The lack of common sense strikes again.

https://www.nbc12.com/2022/11/08/bus-driver-following-gps-takes-students-wrong-state/

Too bad one of us wasn't on the bus, we could have tapped the driver and informed them of their error. 

It wouldn't surprise me if one of the students tried, and the bus driver ignored them.

Or maybe the students just went with the flow, thinking they didn't want to go to their first hour class anyway.

It said in the article that several of the students were upset enough they were texting their parents about it. At least one parent intercepted the bus and demanded their child be let off, and the bus driver's response was to call the cops. Only when the cops told the driver they were going to the wrong place did they turn around.

So I have no doubt that someone told the bus driver they were going the wrong way. And I'm guessing the driver just refused to believe that anyone else could possibly know where they were going better than the GPS did.

My thought was that while someone might have said "I think you're going the wrong way", a roadgeek may have figured out why they were going the wrong way and said "We just entered Connecticut - I think you might be headed to the wrong Academy Avenue".

Then again, as others have said, you might as well take a chance to miss class and clinch some new roads instead, so why say anything? 

[kphoger]

Only in Rhode Island...  A school bus driver took her students across the state line–on the other side of the state from the school's location–so one parent decided to just drive over there and speak with the driver.

Also, I found it interesting that, even though the bus was in Connecticut, a local officer from Scituate, RI, responded.

[US 89]

Only in Rhode Island...  A school bus driver took her students across the state line–on the other side of the state from the school's location–so one parent decided to just drive over there and speak with the driver.

Also, I found it interesting that, even though the bus was in Connecticut, a local officer from Scituate, RI, responded.

Guess he was Scituated at the right place at the right time.

(sorry, couldn't resist)

[Bitmapped]

We had a 2009 Magellan GPS that took us thru some interesting areas in 2010:

The first was in Morgantown, WV.  Our GPS took us thru the parking area of WVU's hospital.

Honestly, that's not a bad routing. It's common for locals to take the street that runs through the parking lot because it avoids a series of traffic lights along WV 705.

[TheGrassGuy]

One time when I was younger, we were taking a vacation to Acadia in Maine, and we were trying to drive from our hotel in Ellsworth to a certain lobster pound on Mt. Desert Island. The thing is, though, we kept taking Route 1/3 south instead of Route 3 north, the right way towards Acadia and Mt. Desert Island. We somehow managed to drive all the way to Penobscot Narrows before the GPS said that we had arrived at our destination, despite there being no lobster pound there.

[jmp367]

Below is an incident with tragic consequences that occurred in the Syracuse, New York area in 2010:

Megabus driver was using personal GPS in crash that killed four on Onondaga Lake Parkway

[kirbykart]

Below is an incident with tragic consequences that occurred in the Syracuse, New York area in 2010:

Megabus driver was using personal GPS in crash that killed four on Onondaga Lake Parkway

The dreaded Onondaga Lake Parkway rail bridge wins again!

[kphoger]

Then there are times when someone really should have trusted his GPS.

Back in 2013, a Boeing Dreamlifter, operated by Atlas Air Cargo, was bound from JFK in New York to McConnell AFB here in Wichita.  Before takeoff from New York, the captain entered McConnell runway 19L into the navigation system.  As the aircraft later approached Wichita, McConnell AFB cleared the aircraft for landing while the Dreamlifter was about 12 miles out.  The pilot and co-pilot then saw a lit runway in front of them, in the orientation they expected to see.  The runway seemed easier to locate and came up faster than they expected (this was the captain's fourth landing at McConnell), but there it was, so the captain turned off the navigation system and began a steeper-than-planned manual descent–without verifying their location first.  Shortly after the plane touched down, McConnell contacted the crew and advised them to "check wheels down"–upon which they replied that they were not, in fact, on approach anymore (and began to suspect something was, umm, rather amiss).

Oops.  The runway they saw was actually Jabara, a small executive airport whose runway is half the length of McConnell's.  The pilots realized they'd landed at the wrong airport but assumed they'd touched down at the nearby Beech factory instead.  Their confusion was due in part to the fact that McConnell hadn't even appeared on the navigation system when the captain turned it off, because it was set for only a 5-mile range and they hadn't reached the 5-mile point yet.

Once everyone figured out what had happened, there was the big, looming question:  was the runway even long enough for the plane to take off again?  Egad!  Maybe..?  Hopefully!  It's generally recommended that a 747 have a 9199-foot runway, and this one was only 6101 feet long.  And at the bottom end of the runway was the K-96 freeway.

So they backed the plane up as far as they could, past the top end of the runway, with the wheels completely off the pavement.  Then they closed off area roads, including K-96, just in case it didn't make it off the ground in time.  And then, a little after 1 AM, it took off, successfully cleared the end of the runway, and landed at McConnell AFB 19 minutes later.

Investigations began.

[Rothman]

Then there are times when someone really should have trusted his GPS.

Back in 2013, a Boeing Dreamlifter, operated by Atlas Air Cargo, was bound from JFK in New York to McConnell AFB here in Wichita.  Before takeoff from New York, the captain entered McConnell runway 19L into the navigation system.  As the aircraft later approached Wichita, McConnell AFB cleared the aircraft for landing while the Dreamlifter was about 12 miles out.  The pilot and co-pilot then saw a lit runway in front of them, in the orientation they expected to see.  The runway seemed easier to locate and came up faster than they expected (this was the captain's fourth landing at McConnell), but there it was, so the captain turned off the navigation system and began a steeper-than-planned manual descent–without verifying their location first.  Shortly after the plane touched down, McConnell contacted the crew and advised them to "check wheels down"–upon which they replied that they were not, in fact, on approach anymore (and began to suspect something was, umm, rather amiss).

Oops.  The runway they saw was actually Jabara, a small executive airport whose runway is half the length of McConnell's.  The pilots realized they'd landed at the wrong airport but assumed they'd touched down at the nearby Beech factory instead.  Their confusion was due in part to the fact that McConnell hadn't even appeared on the navigation system when the captain turned it off, because it was set for only a 5-mile range and they hadn't reached the 5-mile point yet.

Once everyone figured out what had happened, there was the big, looming question:  was the runway even long enough for the plane to take off again?  Egad!  Maybe..?  Hopefully!  It's generally recommended that a 747 have a 9199-foot runway, and this one was only 6101 feet long.  And at the bottom end of the runway was the K-96 freeway.

So they backed the plane up as far as they could, past the top end of the runway, with the wheels completely off the pavement.  Then they closed off area roads, including K-96, just in case it didn't make it off the ground in time.  And then, a little after 1 AM, it took off, successfully cleared the end of the runway, and landed at McConnell AFB 19 minutes later.

Investigations began.

Sounds like egregious pilot error, unless their GPS/charts were incorrect.

[kphoger]

Then there are times when someone really should have trusted his GPS.

Back in 2013, a Boeing Dreamlifter, operated by Atlas Air Cargo, was bound from JFK in New York to McConnell AFB here in Wichita.  Before takeoff from New York, the captain entered McConnell runway 19L into the navigation system.  As the aircraft later approached Wichita, McConnell AFB cleared the aircraft for landing while the Dreamlifter was about 12 miles out.  The pilot and co-pilot then saw a lit runway in front of them, in the orientation they expected to see.  The runway seemed easier to locate and came up faster than they expected (this was the captain's fourth landing at McConnell), but there it was, so the captain turned off the navigation system and began a steeper-than-planned manual descent–without verifying their location first.  Shortly after the plane touched down, McConnell contacted the crew and advised them to "check wheels down"–upon which they replied that they were not, in fact, on approach anymore (and began to suspect something was, umm, rather amiss).

Oops.  The runway they saw was actually Jabara, a small executive airport whose runway is half the length of McConnell's.  The pilots realized they'd landed at the wrong airport but assumed they'd touched down at the nearby Beech factory instead.  Their confusion was due in part to the fact that McConnell hadn't even appeared on the navigation system when the captain turned it off, because it was set for only a 5-mile range and they hadn't reached the 5-mile point yet.

Once everyone figured out what had happened, there was the big, looming question:  was the runway even long enough for the plane to take off again?  Egad!  Maybe..?  Hopefully!  It's generally recommended that a 747 have a 9199-foot runway, and this one was only 6101 feet long.  And at the bottom end of the runway was the K-96 freeway.

So they backed the plane up as far as they could, past the top end of the runway, with the wheels completely off the pavement.  Then they closed off area roads, including K-96, just in case it didn't make it off the ground in time.  And then, a little after 1 AM, it took off, successfully cleared the end of the runway, and landed at McConnell AFB 19 minutes later.

Investigations began.

Sounds like egregious pilot error, unless their GPS/charts were incorrect.

Yes.  Note the very first sentence in my post.

[Rothman]

Then there are times when someone really should have trusted his GPS.

Back in 2013, a Boeing Dreamlifter, operated by Atlas Air Cargo, was bound from JFK in New York to McConnell AFB here in Wichita.  Before takeoff from New York, the captain entered McConnell runway 19L into the navigation system.  As the aircraft later approached Wichita, McConnell AFB cleared the aircraft for landing while the Dreamlifter was about 12 miles out.  The pilot and co-pilot then saw a lit runway in front of them, in the orientation they expected to see.  The runway seemed easier to locate and came up faster than they expected (this was the captain's fourth landing at McConnell), but there it was, so the captain turned off the navigation system and began a steeper-than-planned manual descent–without verifying their location first.  Shortly after the plane touched down, McConnell contacted the crew and advised them to "check wheels down"–upon which they replied that they were not, in fact, on approach anymore (and began to suspect something was, umm, rather amiss).

Oops.  The runway they saw was actually Jabara, a small executive airport whose runway is half the length of McConnell's.  The pilots realized they'd landed at the wrong airport but assumed they'd touched down at the nearby Beech factory instead.  Their confusion was due in part to the fact that McConnell hadn't even appeared on the navigation system when the captain turned it off, because it was set for only a 5-mile range and they hadn't reached the 5-mile point yet.

Once everyone figured out what had happened, there was the big, looming question:  was the runway even long enough for the plane to take off again?  Egad!  Maybe..?  Hopefully!  It's generally recommended that a 747 have a 9199-foot runway, and this one was only 6101 feet long.  And at the bottom end of the runway was the K-96 freeway.

So they backed the plane up as far as they could, past the top end of the runway, with the wheels completely off the pavement.  Then they closed off area roads, including K-96, just in case it didn't make it off the ground in time.  And then, a little after 1 AM, it took off, successfully cleared the end of the runway, and landed at McConnell AFB 19 minutes later.

Investigations began.

Sounds like egregious pilot error, unless their GPS/charts were incorrect.

Yes.  Note the very first sentence in my post.

I will not until you note the last half of mine.

[KCRoadFan]

Here's a personal story that relates to this perfectly.

At the end of eighth grade, (if a student had raised enough money through fundraisers) they could go on a trip to Washington DC. I went on that trip, and the boneheadedness of relying solely on GPS quickly set in. First of all, the bus driver got from Cattaraugus to Salamanca... by going through Ellicottville. (In case you don't know, it is much faster to go through Little Valley). Then I thought, once on Route 17, "Oh, all is well, we will follow a somewhat normal routing now". I couldn't have been more wrong.

The driver took Exit 26 and drove right through Downtown Olean. (I can't imagine those tiny roundabouts were easy to navigate in a giant bus!). Then, south of Olean, turns down Cattaraugus County Road 29, crossing into PA. The driver then made umpteen turns, traversing the towns of Eldred, Port Allegany, Roulette, etc. I actually stopped paying attention at this point because the route was so miserably bad.

About 20 minutes later, I start looking around again, and saw we were in a forest. A few minutes later, the bus stops. We all wonder why. Apparently, the engine overheated and some belt broke, all because the driver was taking the giant bus up steep hills in the middle of a forest. (In case you are wondering, the road was PA 44 and this was in the depths of the Susquehanna Forest.) So we were all stranded in the middle of a forest. No cellphone service, and the nearest town was 20 miles away. We got out of the bus, and were all stranded for five and a half hours! By that time, mechanics came to fix the belt of the bus, a process that took about ten minutes.


  Yet another story to prove you should never rely solely on GPS.

Wow! Did you make it to DC eventually?

[Bruce]

WSDOT shifted a few miles of I-90 for a multi-year construction project near Snoqualmie Pass, so Apple Maps decided to reroute drivers onto a remote, unpaved forest road that would have become impassible after the first snow. Don't trust your GPS, especially if it's as awful as Apple Maps.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/apple-maps-is-redirecting-drivers-off-i-90-onto-a-dirt-road/

[kirbykart]

Here's a personal story that relates to this perfectly.

At the end of eighth grade, (if a student had raised enough money through fundraisers) they could go on a trip to Washington DC. I went on that trip, and the boneheadedness of relying solely on GPS quickly set in. First of all, the bus driver got from Cattaraugus to Salamanca... by going through Ellicottville. (In case you don't know, it is much faster to go through Little Valley). Then I thought, once on Route 17, "Oh, all is well, we will follow a somewhat normal routing now". I couldn't have been more wrong.

The driver took Exit 26 and drove right through Downtown Olean. (I can't imagine those tiny roundabouts were easy to navigate in a giant bus!). Then, south of Olean, turns down Cattaraugus County Road 29, crossing into PA. The driver then made umpteen turns, traversing the towns of Eldred, Port Allegany, Roulette, etc. I actually stopped paying attention at this point because the route was so miserably bad.

About 20 minutes later, I start looking around again, and saw we were in a forest. A few minutes later, the bus stops. We all wonder why. Apparently, the engine overheated and some belt broke, all because the driver was taking the giant bus up steep hills in the middle of a forest. (In case you are wondering, the road was PA 44 and this was in the depths of the Susquehanna Forest.) So we were all stranded in the middle of a forest. No cellphone service, and the nearest town was 20 miles away. We got out of the bus, and were all stranded for five and a half hours! By that time, mechanics came to fix the belt of the bus, a process that took about ten minutes.


  Yet another story to prove you should never rely solely on GPS.

Wow! Did you make it to DC eventually?

Yes, and we had a great time. But it was really quite the experience!

[webny99]

I once was on a bus trip returning from the NYC/Newark area, and when we got past Syracuse, the driver continued to follow NY 690 instead of exiting at the Thruway. We exited at NY 370 instead, followed NY 370 to NY 34, and then took NY 34 south to the Thruway to get on one exit further west. At that point, it would have been quicker to just stay on NY 370 and take NY 104 back into Rochester. It was night time and I remember it quite vividly - the only thing I don't remember is if the Thruway exit from I-690 was closed, or if the driver took an alternate route for some other unknown reason.

[webny99]

Here's a personal story that relates to this perfectly.
...

About 20 minutes later, I start looking around again, and saw we were in a forest. A few minutes later, the bus stops. We all wonder why. Apparently, the engine overheated and some belt broke, all because the driver was taking the giant bus up steep hills in the middle of a forest. (In case you are wondering, the road was PA 44 and this was in the depths of the Susquehanna Forest.) So we were all stranded in the middle of a forest. No cellphone service, and the nearest town was 20 miles away. We got out of the bus, and were all stranded for five and a half hours! By that time, mechanics came to fix the belt of the bus, a process that took about ten minutes.

  Yet another story to prove you should never rely solely on GPS.

Wow! Did you make it to DC eventually?

Yes, and we had a great time. But it was really quite the experience!

I can't help but wonder if the bus driver was following some sort of "fuel efficient" or shorter-mileage route. PA 44 could have been a shortcut to the US 15 corridor, but that would make more sense for the Baltimore area than DC. Near as I can tell, US 219 would still be shorter and faster for DC.

[kirbykart]

^I don't know. We did end up using US 15 down, but we should have just gone to Corning and followed it the whole way. Maybe PA 44 was technically shorter distance, but all those windy mountain roads couldn't have made it shorter time-wise.

[kphoger]

the only thing I don't remember is if the Thruway exit from I-690 was closed, or if the driver took an alternate route for some other unknown reason.

Route clinching.

[webny99]

the only thing I don't remember is if the Thruway exit from I-690 was closed, or if the driver took an alternate route for some other unknown reason.

Route clinching.

Except that no routes were clinched. We were already at the western terminus of I-690, exited before the end of NY 690, and traveled only partial segments of NY 370 and NY 34.

[SEWIGuy]

the only thing I don't remember is if the Thruway exit from I-690 was closed, or if the driver took an alternate route for some other unknown reason.

Route clinching.

Except that no routes were clinched. We were already at the western terminus of I-690, exited before the end of NY 690, and traveled only partial segments of NY 370 and NY 34.

Jokes are always funnier when you explain them.

[JoePCool14]

the only thing I don't remember is if the Thruway exit from I-690 was closed, or if the driver took an alternate route for some other unknown reason.

Route clinching.

Except that no routes were clinched. We were already at the western terminus of I-690, exited before the end of NY 690, and traveled only partial segments of NY 370 and NY 34.

The driver was just looking to add some segments.