I can understand that there are probably some GPS devices that are badly designed and can be distracting. But I think overall that GPSs probably decrease distracted driving and keep more drivers focused on driving. I didn’t have a GPS the first year I lived in Houston, and would often have to be looking around for street names or building numbers while driving. And the signs aren’t always easy to see. Sometimes I would have Google map directions printed out, and I’d try only to glance at them when traffic was stopped, but I’ll admit I would sometimes look back and forth at them while driving. I fortunately was never in an accident, but I was definitely looking away from the road more than I should have.
Now with a GPS, I will be looking back and forth at the GPS, but I have my eyes on the road a lot more and am a lot less distracted. I would much rather have people slightly distracted by a GPS, rather than majorly distracted by folded maps, written or printed directions, or looking around for street signs and building numbers.
That is huge. Before I had my GPS, I could pretty much get around in Houston. I would look up directions on my computer before I left home and make sure I understood what roads and exits I needed to take. I would also often print out the Google directions. But several times I would miss the exit because of construction, or traffic preventing me from getting over, or just confusion because there were several exits all together and I wasn’t sure which one was mine. I could figure it out eventually, but having a GPS that automatically recalculates now saves me so much time of wandering around before pulling over and consulting a map and then wandering around some more.
I read that F-4 Phantoms in the '60’s had all sorts of verbal notices for the pilots, but when the heat was on, the first thing the pilots did was turn all that shit off, it was just too distracting. All he wanted to know was how to get where he was supposed to go, how to go home, and whether a missle was hurtling toward him. I admit that driving I-275 in downtown Tampa during rush hour isn’t quite the same, but like the pilot, I’m also trying to avoid a flaming death, and most of the fancy features of an inboard touch screen are just too damned distracting.
No…there will be a central control computer that knows when you need to go to work and when you need to buy bread, and will take you wherever you should be.
