In a world post-GPS, we know many of you absolutely trust your guidance systems whether it be dedicated GPS devices or Google Maps, but if we learned anything from GPS misguidance reports in Australia, it’s that you shouldn’t trust your GPS completely, especially if you’re driving over 900 miles due to an error.
According to a story in El Mundo, a 67-year-old woman drove for over two days accumulating 900 miles driven in the wrong direction due to the combination of her GPS providing and error in its navigation and her own inability to realize she was really only 90 miles away from her destination.
The woman started her misadventure from Hainault Erquelinnes, Belgium and originally planned to drive to Brussels, which is approximately 93 miles north from where she was. The GPS she was using told her to instead go south, which resulted in her traveling for two days, driving over 900 miles to Zagreb, Croatia.
The elderly woman said she was distracted throughout her drive, which resulted in her 900 mile ordeal:
I was distracted, so I kept driving. I saw all kinds of traffic signs, first in French, then German and finally in Croatian, but I kept driving because I was distracted. Suddenly I appeared in Zagreb and I realized I wasn’t in Belgium anymore.
Remember this story the next time you’re being redirected by your GPS as the little hiccup could cost you quite the adventure, that is, if you forget to realize you’ve been driving for days.
Filed in . Read more about Apple Maps, Google Maps and GPS.