Fun with software bugs in GPS units.

I'm sure it didn't tell him to stop and leave the car there, but...

A computer consultant driving a rental car drove onto train tracks Wednesday using the instructions his GPS unit gave him.
Man using GPS drives in front of train (Yahoo! News)

Sometimes it's fun to see where you'll end up following inexplicable directions from a GPS unit. But if the computer tells you to stop on the railroad tracks, you've obviously done something to offend SkyNet. Start keeping an eye out for Terminators because your days are numbered...

We did this last Spring just for giggles driving from Redmond to Houston after Ranger camp; we were pretty sure that the GPS was very confused when it told us to turn off the paved road, but morbid curiosity kept us following the Garmin Streetpilot's directions to Yellowstone National Park... until the unpaved road disappeared into the Snake River in the middle of a private ranch, at which point we decided that we should probably get out the old-fashioned dead-tree map instead.

Here’s a picture of where the GPS took us in Wyoming. In the GPS’ defense, the wife was driving. (You can see my aircard antenna stuck to the windshield while I was updating Streets & Trips' maps to see if its directions would continue to agree with the Garmin's. They did.) There were a lot more cattle out of frame on either side of the van…

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We still laugh about it from time to time when the GPS misbehaves. The five-way (or more) intersections that are common in Redmond give the navigation system in the Sequoia fits occasionally.

Drive friendly!