September 30th, 2008 in GPS, Transportation | No Comments »
Filed under: GPS, Transportation
We’ve seen some pretty extreme cases of excessive
faith in GPS, but this may well be the first instance of the ill-advised practice nearly exactly repeating itself. As you may recall,
earlier this year a Bedford Hills, New York man trusted his GPS so much that he apparently thought it was perfectly reasonable to follow the directions directly
onto a set of train tracks. That didn’t exactly work out so well, for his car or the oncoming train. Now, as The Journal News reports, another man followed his GPS onto the very same set of tracks last night and, while he did get out in time to make a surely embarrassing 911 call, that apparently wasn’t enough to prevent a commuter train from slamming into the car a few minutes later, causing an hour and a half delay but, thankfully, no injuries. Maybe it’s time for some
signs?
GPS sends another driver onto train tracks of doom originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Sep 2008 12:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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September 18th, 2008 in GPS, Transportation | No Comments »
Filed under: GPS, Transportation
Comically enough, we already knew that Geek Squad employees took a few liberties with their company car, but this is a debacle. Can you imagine how enraged the poor sap is who was expecting this fool? They probably took a vacation day just to stay home and overpay for some potentially dodgy PC fixer to remove a virus. For shame.
Chris: “Late at night — well after their shifts end — testosterone-crazed Geek Squad and Firedog employees meet in alleyways across the nation for dangerous games of chicken that all too often end in tragedy.”
Paul: “Did you unplug it and then plug it back in? Look mom, I’m a little busy right now…”
Joe: “Geez… it’s called multi-tasking!”
Darren: “Hey there Brad from Circuit City! About that job ad on Craigslist…”
Don: “But sir, the GPS said I was going the right way.”
Sean: “Naw, really, I just scuffed up the paint on the bumper and lost the hubcap, the MRI disk is still secure.”
Nilay: “Hello… is it possible to retroactively buy that $29.95 PRP plan?”
Josh F.: “So I think we figured out the problem with your laptop. Looks like someone dropped it.”
[Thanks, DS]
Caption Contest: PC fixer destroys Geek Squad Beetle, phones for tech support originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Sep 2008 18:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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September 16th, 2008 in GPS, Transportation, Wireless | No Comments »
Filed under: GPS, Transportation, Wireless
For more than a year lucky BMW-owning Germans have been hitting Google Maps, and more recently the rest of the Internets, at blazing (cough) EDGE speeds from their sport-seats. Now, Bimmer-owning Americans are getting a piece of the action with a little help from AT&T’s GSM-friendly network. However, while there’s no mention in the release, BMW Blog thinks US cars will be limited to GPRS, not EDGE. All 2009 American BMW models, except for the lowly X3 mini-’Ute (which BMW doesn’t even bother to manufacture itself), will get Google Maps integration, enabling the driver or passenger to search for businesses from the dash. Directions can be piped to the car’s nav system and calls placed via in-car Bluetooth. At $199 per-year it’s not exactly a steal, but that does include standard BMW Assist functionality like locating your car if it’s stolen or dispatching an ambulance if you’re in a horrible accident. Yeah, we only care about the searching too.
Googling BMWs coming to US streets originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Sep 2008 08:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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