QOTD: Taken For a Ride?

The wonders of modern technology allow us to enjoy an endless list of conveniences and pleasures. It’s amazing we’re so miserable.

Our cars can brake on their own to avoid the nearsighted neighbor boy; lane-hold systems can keep us on the straight and narrow, while in-dash navigation systems and even our phones can offer verbal directions to the destination of our choice. No longer does man have to suffer with paper maps and dead reckoning. The stars adorning the heavens are there just for decoration these days.

And yet technology still has the annoying tendency to fail at its job.

It was New Year’s Eve. A friend and I were on the way to meet up with a group of people at a cherished dive bar, riding in the back of a Altima piloted by an Uber driver who, and this isn’t a comment on anything, only recently entered the country. With local landmarks still unfamiliar to this driver, surely his phone’s GPS would prove an asset, right?

Wrong. Ever since GPS misdirections made their way into the plot of The Office, wild forays into the unknown at the hands of a drunk electronic navigator have been part of the public consciousness. It was no different that night, as the driver’s GPS led us everywhere but our intended destination. Time after time, the infuriating charted and spoken course would offer up a path heading exactly away from the bar.

With whole dollars riding on this gig-economy excursion, my threadbare wallet ached as each block passed. Eventually we threw in the towel, asking the driver to stop when we passed within walking distance of the destination, thus forcing us into a crowd of pissed-drunk French Canadians who soon decided the time was right for a snowball fight.

It’s not the first time I’ve been led astray by someone else’s GPS, and it likely won’t be the last. In this scenario, the addle-brained directions only delayed the pouring of intoxicating beverages down your author’s bone-dry gullet. In other circumstances, faulty electronic directions can have a far greater impact.

What’s the worst experience you’ve ever had with GPS?

[Image: Trekandshoot/Shutterstock]