Oops, I did it again and the art of navigation

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Gadget Girl
marielwong, Australia

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Aug 04, 2010

Update: Jan 2017

Oops, I did it again and the art of navigation

Once again, I did it again.

Having clicked too quickly on my posting, it automatically refreshed, only to leave me staring blindly at my previous post; without all the goodness that I had spent the last twenty minutes churning out. Great. Perfect day.

So, let’s start afresh and talk about something more spontaneous for a bit. Initially, my topic had been on the new “secret document” that the Attorney-General’s office was trying to distance itself from; that in short stank of “nanny state” and data-mining under legal pretexts. Instead, I have decided to talk about something less driven and fluffier in nature.

Namely, my partner and my new obsession on owning a car and driving down the coast for a light backpacking trip.

And yet, car technology is just so vastly complex and for me at the very least, almost incomprehensible at present. Still, poring through the catalogues, what I believe would suffice in a decent second-hand car would be an RACV-approved car that has been fully checked for functionality with approval-ratings; a trusted brand (personally, I like the Honda Jazz and smaller-sized cars, but that’s just me); and of course a trusty navigation system somewhat along the lines of a Garmin or even my trusty iPhone maps (although that would mean that one person would need to constantly keep an eye on its direction to navigate effectively).

And, on the topic of navigating, a family of four, together with their trusted mutt was stranded for three nights in an offbeat road (Darling River Road), whilst traveling via Brisbane-Perth. The reason for them being trapped? Because they followed the lovingly hypnotic voice of their navigator system, and conveniently ignored all signage that referred to the words “closed roads” and “do not enter”.

Obviously, when technology is involved, robots should be more in sync to reality than we humans are, right? If you follow directions, and never ask, one cannot possibly go wrong, can they?

Despite having been rescued, this family would probably all but forget the day, that their robotic mate led them very much astray. I know when I start driving (once I pass, in October!), that would be one practical joke, I would hate to play on myself.

Credits: Image Source- eckiller.com