Man drives into river after GPS told him to, police say
Commentary: In China, yet another driver apparently slavishly follows technology and ends up where he shouldn't be. And police spend half a day getting the car out.
Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.
And then he was stranded.
The beauty of technology is that it sometimes saves us from having to think. The ugliness of technology is that it can, at times, encourage us not to think at all.
And so it is that we turn to yet another human being who allegedly trusted a gadget, even when his eyes must have told him he was being led astray.
As the Shanghaiist reports, a driver in Anhui, China, admitted to police he wasn't familiar with the local roads.
So he relied on his car's GPS. Yes, even when it led him into a river. It reportedly took police half a day to get the car out.
The incident happened on April 1, yet I'm reliably informed China doesn't celebrate April Fools' Day.
This is, of course, a familiar story. It's one that leads to wondering why the driver didn't turn back when he saw he was driving straight into water.
But humans just keep going. Last year a woman drove into a 100-foot-deep lake and her car was completely submerged.
Sometimes, these stories seem merely amusing. On occasion, they can result in tragedy.
But they keep on happening because it's so much harder these days to use one's own judgment and say, "This machine is full of it."
Reminder: Gadgets can make mistakes. You know why? Because they were made by humans.
Virtual reality 101: CNET tells you everything you need to know about what VR is and how it'll affect your life.
Technically Literate: Original works of short fiction with unique perspectives on tech, exclusively on CNET.