Saturday, April 28, 2007

The Many Uses of GPS


True story: a colleague and I were driving to Montreal for an industry show earlier this month. Upon arrival, I grabbed my portable GPS unit (from Mio) to help guide us to the nearest gas station. For those who don't know what portable GPS is, they're small units that are powered by an internal battery, and can be used in-car or hand to provide both verbal and illustrated turn-by-turn directions from Point A to Point B. They can also locate millions of Points of Interest, or "POIs", like gas stations, restaurants, and hotels.

Anyway, so the sultry, female voice emitting from the Mio tells us to turn left at the upcoming lights. As we turn onto the new street, a police office is waiting on the left side of the road and waves us over. Crap!

"You're not supposed to turn left there," he says. "Didn't you see the signs?"

"We're sorry officer," answers my colleague. "We're just trying to find a gas station, and were following that thing." He points to the portable GPS unit, which is in clear view in my hand in the passenger seat.

"Oh," the officer grunts. "I hate those things. Go ahead, but please pay more attention to the signs."

As we drove off, we couldn't stop laughing at the hilarity of the situation. Moral of the story: portable GPS doesn't just get you to where you're going, but it also gets you out of a ticket! I appreciate mine even more now...

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is a very funny story. I was actually thinking of getting one for my mom, as a mother’s day present, as it would be useful for her job. However she does travel a lot and I was wondering which particular device would allow her to use it in Europe.

Marketnews - Christine Persaud said...

Hi Anonymous,

Click here to read a full review of a few portable GPS systems currently on the market. http://www.hereshow.ca/latestissue.asp?id=29. Mio is working on adding European maps to its devices, and we should see that functionality soon (fingers crossed!) Another option is TomTom, who are based in Europe. TomTom's GO910 was reviewed here. With this model, you can even choose from a number of pre-defined voices, or download cool ones online. See the article to hear about my fav Aussie buddy! (you have reeeched yo DEStination!)

Anonymous said...

Did you flip your hair to get out of the ticket?

Marketnews - Christine Persaud said...

Hi pb,

I was just the passenger (my colleague was driving)so alas, the ticket wouldn't have been mine! But to set the record straight, there was, nor would have been, any "hair flicking".

Anonymous said...

Thank You very much for answering my question. I read the article and found it to be very helpful. Thank You again.