You get into the car and the first thing you do is configure the route in your favorite application. We have gotten used to this for a few years now, it doesn't matter if we do it via our phone or with Android Auto. Applications such as Google Maps, Waze or alternatives such as Coyote allow us to go to our destination without having to look for the route on a map. Very useful, So much that we end up going down. Too much.
These applications are warned when we must turn, when we must deviate from another road or even when there is a nearby radar. We tend to blindly make your indications, Several times ignoring common sense or our perception of the road. Not always, but it can lead us to a problem. And there is a good assortment of previous ones who demonstrate it.
The technology, whatever, is not infallible
The technology is ideal for better or easier life and you don't have to go very far for it. Before having GPS and applications like Google Maps as a hand, planning a road trip was an odyssey. Finding card roads was a necessary first step, everything without counting We didn't have back of the state of the same In case of dense traffic, accidents or bad weather.
From this, we went at a time when it is enough to introduce the destination and the application is in turn responsible for the rest. The system is so simple, accessible and fast that Put your hands seems the most logical decision. This may be why it can become a problem that, probably, we have suffered once. I had to give a huge rodeo in the city of Malaga for a reduction in the work indicated by Google Maps which, perhaps because of a specific error, did not exist.
Something like that happens to us is not good, but the consequences do not go beyond spending more time driving. The problem is when an indication of this type can put an end to the car on a road where you cannot circulate or directly with the car on the stairsAs happened a few months ago in the city of Sanxenxo.
Image: Sanxenxo Concaldress
This case has not ended the victims or damage too serious, but it is not the only time a vehicle ended with a delicate position by A bad indication of a GPS. We have another example that occurred in 2022 in the city of Ávila, where a driver was looking for a parking lot and after a GPS, he also put an end to the car on the stairs.
Image: emergencies Ávila
Events of this type occur not only with individuals. We also have several cases in the past few years in which trucks of all kinds have been involved, with professional drivers driving. As the Diario of Navarra explains, there are already six trucks in recent years which are stuck in the urban nucleus of Etulain, A small town of 40 neighbors. The fault is again a GPS.
We also have another fairly curious example linked to trucks and errors caused by GPS. The Civil Guard refers to an area known as the “Triangle of Pants”, located at the Rioja. This area is likely to play truck drivers badly because the GPS indicates that there is A service station that does not exist And most vehicles find themselves blocked as in the following image.
Image: Civil guard
Know where there are radars can play against us
We focused on accidents caused by a GPS application, but we have another point which is very important for applications such as Waze and Google Maps: Radares location. As we have explained on other occasions, there is no problem knowing the location of all fixed radars, information published by the DGT itself. Those who are mobile are already another problem.
The use of an application like Waze to be aware of these other radars is useful. This application feeds the information that other users give, so if we see one of these radars and inform the rest, we will know that there is a certain care with our speed. Here we come back to what we commented a little above: We hope that this information is “absolute”. And this is not the case.
Image: Roadjourney2Wheels (Instagram)
A few days ago, we told you a case where a motorist had noticed an almost “invisible” radar. It was placed behind a signal and it is so compact that it is practically impossible to see it until it has been succeeded (and it is too late, of course). In this case, the radar could have been communicated via Waze but, Will there be more hidden radars? It is very likely, which makes everyone in an application.
Here, the question of confidence comes into play. We are driving and we see that in the application, there are no radars on our itinerary. If we blindly trust this information, There is the possibility that we trust excess And we end up exceeding a speed limit in an area controlled by one of these “invisible” or hidden radars. The result will probably be received.
These types of radars are added to trailer radars, which are so easy to move that they can change the location in a short time. All this should show us that applications such as Waze or Google Maps are very useful and positive for the driver, almost vital in long trips or to move to a city that we do not know. Now your information Can't make us abandon common sense. And if not, we must always ask someone to spend how a life was made.
Image | Composition with image of Álvaro García M. and Emergencies Ávila
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