There is no street here!

[Valentinian]

When GPS's go bad .

at least it was up and not down. (It did try to send us down the cliff on the way back home, but we were ready for its shenanigans!)

[mjr]

him: My boss says we turn down this street.
me: There's no street here.
him: The map he sent says it's down this street.
me: The map is wrong. That street doesn't exist.
him: It says we turn here and follow the road around.
me: That's an apartment complex. It doesn't go through. Look up from your phone man, there is no street here!

The employee:

1. Believes that "even when the boss is wrong, the boss is right".
2. Is gullible enough to believe the boss, even when the boss is clearly wrong.

It's like a real-life Dilbert strip!

[Terza]

When DH and I drove to Chesterfield once for a weekend away, we borrowed FIL's satnav for the journey.
Luckily, we also took printed directions, because we got to within 5 miles of Chesterfield and the satnav started telling us we were going the wrong way and to do a u-turn! Since we could see road signs and they matched the printed directions, the satnav landed in the back seat and stayed there until we gave it back to FIL!

[Lovecats]

I've had a GPS try to route me up a cliff...

When GPS's go bad .

[AccountingDrone]

Last summer my GPS routed me through Philadelphia coming home from Greenville NC ... the damned thing put me into a dead end by the old Phily Navy Yard, and getting back to the NJ Turnpike effectively routed me through the rather battle scarred parts of Trenton, and of course my damned car needed fuel at 2 am... I can tell you that I was glad my concealed carry permit for NJ was still valid as I was wearing my sidearm and it was readily available. The clerk for the place was inside a kiosk with inch thick bullet proof glass ... and I did not get warm fuzzy feelings about being standing out alone in a slum.

I have also gotten rid of the damned thing, and carry both printed out directions with maps, a AAA travel triptic and an actual road atlas now. Screw electronics.

[Cia]

Google Maps has the back parking lot of the strip mall on the north side of the building where I work marked as the road that is actually on the south side of the building. I don't know what the Google van was thinking when they came up with this one.

[otter]

On a road trip to Pensacola recently, my GPS kept getting me off the highway and running me through downtown of *insert random major city*, and then get right back on the highway. Including a detour through Atlanta's seediest looking districts, at 2am, twisting and turning on 25 mph streets and ignoring exits onto the highway in favor of one ten miles away.

Being a lone white female stuck on a dark street at a red light staring down some guys on the corner with crowbars... Super fun.

Aso, is it just me or do GPSes start out with one time and then it inexplicitly gets longer and longer....?

[MoonCat]

Many years ago, there was a screenshot floating around the internet in which the MapQuest (?, I think) route between two addresses in the UK . . .

included parts of Norway.

That's a hell of a detour

[Argus]

The post office once decided that the driveway for my grandparents' house counted as a street, so that street name is part of the mailing address. Some map programs and GPS units ignore that alleged street and route drivers to the closest segment of the actual street with that name. And even if the location is found properly, the directions might have a flaw, such as sending drivers to the major street nearby (which is admittedly a little closer than the street the driveway connects to).

[Valentinian]

I've had a GPS try to route me up a cliff...

[aqutalion]

My dad lives in a rural area. Their house is physically in town A, but their mailing zip code is town B. At the border between A and B, the street numbers start over. All of these work together to confuse the hell out of map programs. If I put his address into Apple maps, it gives me a random piece of forest, 5 or 6 miles down the road. If I put a pin on his actual house, it can't tell what the address should be.

[Geek King]

Many years ago, there was a screenshot floating around the internet in which the MapQuest (?, I think) route between two addresses in the UK . . .

included parts of Norway.

To be fair, the ferry running between the UK and Scandinavia they showed on Top Gear looked epic, and well worth the trip!

[morgana]

Many years ago, there was a screenshot floating around the internet in which the MapQuest (?, I think) route between two addresses in the UK . . .

included parts of Norway.

[ComputerNecromancer]

My Garmin GPs (or at least the maps for it) have some quirks.

One time it told me to follow one sidestreet. Except it only went halfway thru the block. Dead end-ended into some trees and bushes. And beyond them was a 10 foot drop into someone's backyard.

Even worse is when you tell it you are on a bicycle. Not only does it not have a clue about all the bike paths in the area (including a pedestrian & bike *only* bridge about a hundred yards from the I-205 bridge over the Clackamas, which means it tries to route you over one of the other two bridges, resulting in a 6 mile detour) but I once had it try to route me along part of I-84!

Yeah, that was the only road that went past where I wanted to go, but bikes aren't allowed on it.

If you are going to include an option for "bicycle" in the route selection, then you should damn well pay attention to both the places bikes *aren't* allowed, but also to the places bikes *are* allowed, but cars aren't.

[April]

Yesterday I used the mapping system on my phone in order to pick up a kid from her friends house. It INSISTED that I take a right, and drive straight through. too bad it was a cul de sac and the address was on the other side of it.