3 ms·

Death by GPS: why do we follow digital maps into dodgy places?

5 points by zeveb 11y ago

hackuser 11y ago
I read an article about the U.S. military's research into AI. Their conclusion is that AI isn't reliable or creative enough to be put in charge; a human needs to be in charge who takes the AI's input, but overrules it as needed.
jlg23 11y ago
I think this is more a problem of us being taught in school not to question authorities "who ought to know better" and thereby unlearning to rely on instincts. Teachers in school, GPS on the road, weather forecasts or any apps we use when we can use some extra expertise. I've: * told a friend in a coastal desert village "It's going to rain, better get the laundry from the roof." - He grew up there and never left village town but still, instead of relying on instincts, took out his smartphone and checked the forecast "No way, mate, no rain today." He had not finished his sentence when the first drop hit the screen of his smartphone. * pointed fellow passengers on a boat to the rising moon. They took out their smartphone, argued it cannot be the moon because their app says it's going to rise in another direction. Then the app corrected itself, now pointing at the clearly visible rising moon. * spent a beautiful morning with a flatmate in the garden of our Venice Beach apartment talking about how beautiful and warm the day is. We go back inside, she looks at the weather app and exclaims "holy shit, it's hot outside!"
stopruiningit 11y ago
A long time ago I was working on a mobile application that used OpenStreetMap data for navigation. I was always really scared that something like what was mentioned in the article would happen. Its a difficult problem to solve because you need so much robust information, and that information can rapidly change as well due to construction or weather (roads can be seasonal etc). I can only imagine this problem getting worse with self-driving smart cars where the driver probably won't paying any attention to the road. Imagine taking a nap and waking up stranded somewhere with no mobile signal.
- ghaff 11y ago
  As I commented on another link to this article, the majority (though not all) of the real horror stories tend to be in the American West. The real issue there is that, contra the full life experience of many visitors, a lot of roads are seasonal, very rough, or just plain undriveable without high clearance 4WD and the ability to operate it. This is really a maps issue rather than a GPS issue. And there have been tragedies based on people following very secondary roads on paper maps as well. The issue is that there's not really an easy classification scheme. After all, there are well graded dirt roads that can be easily travelled by passenger cars that steadily degrade to "I can't believe someone could drive this in a car" levels. And all ranges of roads in between.

5 points by zeveb 11y ago

I read an article about the U.S. military's research into AI. Their conclusion is that AI isn't reliable or creative enough to be put in charge; a human needs to be in charge who takes the AI's input, but overrules it as needed.

jlg23 11y ago

I think this is more a problem of us being taught in school not to question authorities "who ought to know better" and thereby unlearning to rely on instincts. Teachers in school, GPS on the road, weather forecasts or any apps we use when we can use some extra expertise. I've: * told a friend in a coastal desert village "It's going to rain, better get the laundry from the roof." - He grew up there and never left village town but still, instead of relying on instincts, took out his smartphone and checked the forecast "No way, mate, no rain today." He had not finished his sentence when the first drop hit the screen of his smartphone. * pointed fellow passengers on a boat to the rising moon. They took out their smartphone, argued it cannot be the moon because their app says it's going to rise in another direction. Then the app corrected itself, now pointing at the clearly visible rising moon. * spent a beautiful morning with a flatmate in the garden of our Venice Beach apartment talking about how beautiful and warm the day is. We go back inside, she looks at the weather app and exclaims "holy shit, it's hot outside!"

stopruiningit 11y ago

A long time ago I was working on a mobile application that used OpenStreetMap data for navigation. I was always really scared that something like what was mentioned in the article would happen. Its a difficult problem to solve because you need so much robust information, and that information can rapidly change as well due to construction or weather (roads can be seasonal etc). I can only imagine this problem getting worse with self-driving smart cars where the driver probably won't paying any attention to the road. Imagine taking a nap and waking up stranded somewhere with no mobile signal.

ghaff 11y ago
As I commented on another link to this article, the majority (though not all) of the real horror stories tend to be in the American West. The real issue there is that, contra the full life experience of many visitors, a lot of roads are seasonal, very rough, or just plain undriveable without high clearance 4WD and the ability to operate it. This is really a maps issue rather than a GPS issue. And there have been tragedies based on people following very secondary roads on paper maps as well. The issue is that there's not really an easy classification scheme. After all, there are well graded dirt roads that can be easily travelled by passenger cars that steadily degrade to "I can't believe someone could drive this in a car" levels. And all ranges of roads in between.