It's The Weather, Stupid

When I caught the title, Why Aren't GPS Navigation Systems More Reliable?, I wondered what the hell it was about - I've used and even programmed GPS/GIS/Inertial Navigation related stuff in the past and continue to play with it as time permits in the present. It's not as good as I would like it to be, but it's good enough for most applications. And if you have the money to buy the good GPS equipment, well - you can get some precision that is downright scary at times.

So what was the article about?

...The latest incident took place a few days ago in the Eastern Oregon desert, when a Nevada couple let their Toyota Sequoia's not-so-trusty GPS system find the shortest route to their destination. According to the
USA Today, John Rhoads and his wife, Starry Bush-Rhoads, got stuck in snow for three days when their GPS unit led them down an isolated forest road...

Oh. You mean they went down an isolated forest road when the weather report probably told them it was snowing? Didn't they check the weather?

OK, I'm being unfair - I don't know these people - but if they knew it was snowing, why on Earth didn't they look at the entire map of the area before going in? Really, I don't see the GPS system as the trouble here. It did what it was designed to do.

Of course, GPS systems with access to meteorology data would be nice - but the places where they would be most needed would be the places where it would be least accurate. You can have satellite data streams, use mobile phone towers or even have an RJ45 cable running out of the back of the vehicle... sooner or later you'll hit a dark spot.

Lesson to be learned: Technology is not a replacement for judgement.