Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/01/21/drivers-headed-to-atlantic-cit.html
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TIL that some people actually ‘click’ on those stupid ads.
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So people don’t actually look at the route before they just head off into the woods? Atlantic City isn’t on a lake, which I think even the least geographically skilled among us knows.
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Deep in the pines. Lucky they didn’t have a run in with the Jersey Devil, Sasquatch, or the various ghost cows of New Jersey.
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Knowing Waze, this is probably after making a left turn from a minor road onto a major street, during rush hour, without a traffic signal…
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Came for the Sopranos, stuck out in the woods, but still satisfied.
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Borg-ata?
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So unfair - and after J.D. spent all that ad money to lure them in, too!
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If they drive off on unpaved roads into the woods without asking themselves, “Is this reasonable? Should I do a little research to see if this is accurate?” they are probably Trump supporters. It’s good for the gene pool if they never manage to find their way out of those woods.
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He’s an interior decorator.
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Waze is great when you already know where you’re going and want information on conditions, speed traps, hazards, etc. I would never use it in an unfamiliar area. The last thing I need is Waze “creatively” routing me when I don’t really know where I’m going in the first place.
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Never use Waze, so can’t comment on it’s ability to direct, but I can say that it’s ability to call tunes to mind is second to none.
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There’s also an element where when you’re in an unfamiliar area, following the GPS. Even if you know the route is off kilter you’ll tend to follow it. Cause just breaking out can lead to serious lostness.
Driving into one of these out of the way areas you often have a regular, sensible looking road that suddenly transitions to fucked up direct road all at once. Often without the opportunity to turn off or any space to turn around. Often enough it’s a better idea to just stick out the weird till you pop out on a more central road.
The problem being that in rural or out of the way spaces these apps have enough gaps and mistakes that that approach will drop you in an abandoned quarry.
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Maybe I’m just overly cautious but I tend to like to actually sanity check maps (even if it’s just Google Maps) before I go somewhere unfamiliar so I know what major roads I should be on, etc. I can still rely on the GPS for granular turn by turn stuff, but at least I’ll have some concept of when things start to “feel” wrong.
It baffles me that people can just blindly follow GPS directions even when clearly don’t make sense. Atlantic City in particular is a huge touristy place on the coast. Having to drive in the opposite direction on sketchy dirt roads should have set off alarm bells but clearly it didn’t.
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Beware of Frog Dreamings 
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Well the article makes no mention of where these people are coming from. Though as tourists its not in and around Atlantic City.
And that area is only 10 miles from the shore, though only about halfway south from NYC. Around an hour away from AC itself.
More importantly you can get to Atlantic City by cutting through there, and it can be a good way to avoid traffic (I’ve done it). If you’re coming from the North or the West it’s an entirely sensible area to loop through.
Part of the promise of these apps is they’ll get you there faster by using back roads and less common routes.
I’m seeing 2 failures here. One clicking on a damn ad to set the destination. And failing to check the end point. Which is definitely fucking basic.
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Yeah, that’s a bit much. I’ve had an issue with similar apps (don’t think it was Waze, but could be wrong) where it changes its mind about where it’s sending me just as I start to make the turn.
What I personally want out of a map app like Waze is for it to help me route around accidents and other obvious problems while shutting the hell up if there aren’t any. The obvious exception is when I don’t know the area at all–but even then could you stick to reasonably major streets?
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