Driving Rant #3: Zero satellites

A friend of mine had given me a GPS system for my car last year, worried that I would lose my way on a road trip through the States. It's served me well a few times, even for driving in my own city.

But sometimes, it just plain sucks.

April showers bring May flowers. They also bring no signals. "Zero satellites" ... that is not what I want my GPS to indicate to me while trying to drive off the island on which I live towards a direction that I'm not sure about.

Sure, I had played safe and printed out Googled directions to my friend's house. I decided though as I drove through the dark evening drizzle with wipers going at full blast that this was NOT the time to unclench my two fists from my steering wheel to turn on my little reading light to try to read the printed directions. Too bad too that my start point had changed since I'd printed these out, now taking me over an entirely different bridge.

Then suddenly through the dark gloomy sky ... "Three satellites" ... I now had directions!!

My GPS system spoke to me ... "Turn around at the first possible opportunity". Great, I was on a highway, in fact, on a long bridge going one way. I continued driving.

My GPS system spoke to me again ... "Turn left now". Still on the same bridge, I ignored the sultry voice with the sexy British accent. Again, she spoke to me, "Turn left now". I looked at the GPS route and realised that those "three satellites" were not recognizing my position!

What to do, what to do ... then suddenly, the GPS started recalculating. "Take the next exit" ... but of course, it was too late for me to do this safely.

Modern technology, what would we do without it?