There is an interesting article on how some people suspect that the James Kim tragedy may have been caused by having chosen a dangerous road based on an electronic mapping system: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...MNGTMMQTVO1.DTL Last year, I found myself in a somewhat similar situation. I was in my 2004 Prius with Nav system, driving to the Lost Coast for a backpacking trip, in the furthest north part of California, almost up by the Oregon border. It turned out there was one extremely "backcountry" road and a more developed road that went the same place (heading towards the coast from inland). The Prius nav system chose the "backcountry" road. For about 2-3 hours we drove this road that was really only suitable to 4WD use. We never saw anyone else on the road, and had to drive extremely carefully, picking our way through the rocks at about 5-10 mph in order to avoid getting the undercarriage hung up on a boulder. A few times the undercarriage did get strongly hit by rocks, so much that I had to get out of the car and look to see if there was any damage. And traction wasn't great so there were a few hills that required a few tries of backing up to gain momentum to get over. Not to mention a few streams we had to cross that were almost up to the level of the doors. We had all our backpacking equipment so we figured worse case if we got stuck we could camp and then hike out, but if we didn't have that option, I would say this road would be totally unsafe. Other times driving out in rural areas I've had the Prius suggest roads that were barricaded because they went across private property. For the most part this only occurs in very rural areas, but I did have a situation where the Prius guided me onto a dangerous rutted seasonal dirt/rock mountain road while driving in fairly well-populated Marin county (just north of San Francisco) to highway 1.
Yup. My friend's GPS took us unnecessarily through miles of winding mountain roads through the Santa Cruz mountains only to find that the road was closed and we had to back track our way out. :angry:
The Kims were looking for a more scenic route, from what i heard, which is what led them to choosing that road when making the decisions (supposedly with the assistance of an electronic mapping solution online). They had stopped at a local convenience store before taking that road, and were advised against it by the employees (something you should always do when unsure of what a road might be like). James Kim did a great job of taking care of his family during the trying ordeal, and he will be missed, not just by his relatives, but also by gadget enthusiasts who regularly read his columns and watched his vodcasts. So yes, the situation was caused by choosing a dangerous road, supposedly using an online mapping system. Using google maps as an example, it doesn't recommend the road they used to get from Roseburg to Gold Beach - it goes a different route. They chose their route to get a more scenic drive through the national forest - and one would have to think that a tech guy like James Kim would have known that NF-23 was a National Forest road.
Note that the nav system doesn't differentiate roads (other than highway or not). If that route is shorter or faster, it will use it.
I thought one map had their route as "Closed in Winter", which may not have meant much since it isn't Winter yet. And I don't follow NAV directions aound here much anymore. I was taken over REALLY crappy dirt roads with holes over half the road, so I stick to the main routes...
