Just follow the instructions

Grandad January 7th, 2010

You have to laugh.

I saw this on the RTE web site -

Gardaí in Offaly are asking people not to use Sat Navs following incidents where several motorists have ended up stranded in snow in the Slieve Bloom Mountains having been directed by Sat Nav.

Apparently people are finding the main roads impassable due to snow and ice, and are asking their SatNavs for an alternative route.  Normally, that would be a logical conclusion, and I have used that facility to great effect myself in the past.

But think about it….

If the main roads are impassable, why would the side roads, and back roads be any better?  In fact I can guarantee they are infinitely worse.

Modern society though has been brought up to rely completely on technology, and even worse, to obey any instruction they are given without any thought.  It has reached a state where people are not capable of thinking for themselves at all.  They blindly follow instructions even though those instructions are patently stupid.

There is a very simple answer to this.

I would suggest that they include a new section in the driving test.

The new section would involve a SatNav system in the test car.  The SatNav would give them clear and concise instructions.  It would direct them up a main road.  It would tell them to turn right at the next junction.  It would tell them to proceed for the next five miles.  They would pass warning signs telling them that it is unsafe to proceed, and that to do so would be fatal.

It would instruct them to drive off the top of a five hundred foot cliff.

I think that would sort the wheat from the chaff?  I don’t think there would be any appeals against a failed test?

The Darwin Theory at its best.

Heh!

14 Responses to “Just follow the instructions”

  1. D IRELANDon 07 Jan 2010 at 3:48 pm

    yeah…you would’ve thought the whole ‘driving up a mountain in a snowstorm’ bit would prompt folks to doubt the aul satnav…genuinely thought it was a joke first…

  2. Grandad IRELANDon 07 Jan 2010 at 3:52 pm

    There have been lots of cases of articulated lorries getting stuck in farmyards and cars nearly driving off cliffs, but that is [almost] understandable.  But when the country is grinding to a halt because of snow, any fucking idiot can work out that back roads/mountains are not the way to go.

    The Gardai should have left them there.

  3. daffy IRELANDon 07 Jan 2010 at 4:12 pm

    I think this is a great idea.
    Although, I’d imagine the guys accompanying the drivers for their tests wouldn’t be too impressed…

  4. Grandad IRELANDon 07 Jan 2010 at 4:56 pm

    That section of the test would be done solo.  I don’t hate instructors that much.

  5. tt UNITED STATESon 07 Jan 2010 at 6:13 pm

    I got a GPS for Xmas. “Magellan,” I think. No use to me as I never go anywhere. I wish they had been invented many moons ago, though. I can think of when it would have come in real handy.

  6. Grandad IRELANDon 07 Jan 2010 at 6:24 pm

    TT – They are great fun.  You’ll find a use for it!!  Just think before following all instruction though??

  7. tt UNITED STATESon 07 Jan 2010 at 8:52 pm

    Ahhhh, a conspiracy theory ? You should check out Jesse Ventura’s TV series. It’s on truTV. Right up your alley.

  8. Ian IRELANDon 07 Jan 2010 at 10:24 pm

    A friend in Scotland lives at the end of a boreen that leads to a field behind his house – drivers following SatNav instructions actually drive into the field and are indignant at being told it is the wrong way.

  9. K8 IRELANDon 08 Jan 2010 at 1:35 am

    My SatNav once told me to drive from Kenilworth to Bray via Johnny Fox’s. I’m glad it did… I bumped into a herd of deer and scored me some dinner for the weekend.
    K8´s last brainfart .. How to deal with tattoo dislikers

  10. Grandad IRELANDon 08 Jan 2010 at 1:39 am

    TT – I don’t go for conspiracy theories.  They are all a conspiracy to divert us from the truth.

    Ian – I rest my case.  People are idiots.

    K8 – I wondered why there was an antler in that ‘lamb’ you served the other night.

  11. blackwatertown UNITED KINGDOMon 08 Jan 2010 at 4:54 am

    Perhaps a simple command from the satnav: Catch yourself on and go home. If they follow blindly they’d end up back where they started and save the rest of us some trouble.

    But more importantly, have been here http://twitter.com/shitmydadsays

    I think you’d like it.

  12. Geri Atric NETHERLANDSon 08 Jan 2010 at 10:41 am

    I drive like that without a SatNav……what??!!

  13. Grandad IRELANDon 08 Jan 2010 at 4:17 pm

    Blackwatertown – Have you been bugging my house again?

    Geri – You drive off cliffs?  Maybe you need a SatNav?  Heh!

  14. johnie UNITED KINGDOMon 08 Jan 2010 at 5:29 pm

    talking about idiots, on the radio here today they has some farmer from gloucestershire talking about milk supplies being lost due to road conditions and trucks not being able to deliver etc

    Farmer l”I had to pour down the drain (insert howerver many hundred gizillion litres here) today, it brought a tear to my eye just thinking about the waste!”…..

    DJ “sure there is no point in crying over spilt milk is there?” ……

    Farmer “eh?”

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