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Great Writing - Home > Comedy > Who's Leading The Blind?
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Comedy
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| Who's Leading The Blind? | |
| By TomOBrien | ||||||||||||||||
| 21 December 2007 | ||||||||||||||||
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Humorous Commentary. Technology. 700 words RE. GPS Devices Who exactly is using these things and what are they using them for? Are they more toys than navigational tools? Recently a friend of mine got a GPS unit for his birthday. The first thing he did was punch in the address of the local grocery store. "It came right up with a map showing the best route from my house to the STOP & SHOP!" He gushed at me. "Mark. You've lived in that house for over thirty years. You could drive to the grocery store in your sleep." I know, I know. I was just pla---testing it." Playing with it is what he almost said. "Then, I entered the address for work and it immediately produced a road map with the route highlighted!" He says with a look of amazement on his face. The guy is a Senior Engineer for an International Aerospace Company. He's not easily amazed. But this "toy" seems to have accomplished it. I refrained from reminding him that he has been driving to work at the same location since they built that building in 1985. I have to believe that he can get there without a whole lot of input form a GPS device. Ya think? A couple of months ago I was driving to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, for the annual Fall Jazz Festival. Over the years, I've driven to Rehoboth Beach from north central Connecticut for this event five or six times. Plus, I have logged more than twenty-five trips to Dover, Delaware, which is less than an hour from Rehoboth. My point being that I know how to get there. This past fall, one of my passengers, a well meaning sort, brought along a GPS. He booted it up, entered in the address of our destination and placed it on the dashboard. My proven route, which is also recommended by the AAA, is to take I-91 South and then I-84 West. The GPS wanted me to go all the way south on I-91 to I-95 south through New Britain and New Haven and head for New York City. "You've got to be joking. I am not driving that major truck corridor at this time of day. Been there, got the battle scars." So this device informs me that I have made a wrong turn as I exit off one Interstate and enter the next. And then it tells me that it's recalculating the route. And I swear that I can detect an attitude in the thing. Now it shows us a route that takes me all the way out I-84 west to I-87 south in New York State. Across the Beacon Newburg bridge. Sorry again, but I'm going I-684 to the Garden State Parkway. Then south to the Jersey Turnpike and across the Delaware Memorial Bridge. It's a proven route. Again the thing chastises me and haughtily tells me that is once more recalculating the route. At this point my passenger / navigator shuts off the GPS, throws it in the glove box and slams it shut. I know how to get to Delaware. Here's something to ponder. What if you were relying on a GPS device to get you to a place that you've never been to and it is a dark, rainy, foggy night? Let's say you're on the unlit back roads of some remote village like Moose-Jaw, New Hampshire, for instance. You're driving along, your headlights barely lighting the road a foot in front of your car, and the GPS device says, "Turn left now." How much faith should you put into a device that cost about twenty dollars to manufacture and is made in China? Do you blindly turn left? I'm sure that these things are great for traveling salesmen and long distance truck drivers. If traffic is backed up or the road is closed, these things will give you an alternate route. They can be invaluable for getting you somewhere you have never been before. You have a customer in Hallelujah, Mississippi, for example. Or the address is confusing, like on the West side of Jefferson Ave East, for instance. But, as far as getting to the local grocery store or a place out of state that you have driven too a number of times, I believe you already know the best route. Cheers.
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