Is Gps a great invention or over hyped?  

I can read a map . I love reading maps . I have always thought of these gadgets as cheating. I prefer using a map and after all these stories I will never, ever use GPs.

Where I do think that GPS tracking is a nice feature, I think when it comes to extreme weather conditions people still need to use an element of common sense. Save minutes, even if an hour off travel time is great, but when the snow is flying I would feel more secure on a main road or highway then an off road. Even your smaller two lane highways can be less maintained then a 4 lane. That to me, is just common sense.

The thing about a snow storm is it might appear that it is coming out of one direction. Maybe they thought they would drive out of it - idk, but I know I'd feel more secure on a more populated road then trying to shave off a few minutes to get to where I was going.

If you are going to follow a GPS and not have an idea of how to get there you are asking for trouble. Like anything you need to be 110% smarter than the device or machine you are dealing with. This summer I was driving out west and followed the GPS and stayed on a highway and something did not feel right so I stopped and checked the map. The route I wanted headed northwest and the one I was on was heading northeast. Since those were my only two choices the GPS recalculated after I missed my turn and kept me going i the wrong direction. GPS are a guide not the end all and be all of directions. You have to use common sense too.

A GPS can be a very useful tool in its own right, especially when you're on a long trip or in an area you're not familiar with. However, it's always best to alwasy be aware of your surrounding, and watch the roads. I have a GPS that occassionally wants to lead me down the wrong way of a one way road. It doesn't always happen, but it does happen occassionally.

I have a GPS also and use it only for travelling to certain areas I am not so familiar with OR I want to 'time' the trip while following the GPS, a little sport between us.

There are times when I just decide not to take the directions offered and swing off at another possibility and the GPS takes a breather and then is all friendly and talkative to me again in the route I am now on..

It pays to use common sense too, as one cannot just rely totally on a machine, but I think it one cool gadget.
I would never go so far as to blame a GPS for the trouble I am in because of a storm. It is a route finder, not a nanny or a weather man, is it.

They would have gotten just as stuck if they had followed the same shortcut on a paper map. I dont understand did the GPS cause them to forgrt that you dont drive down logging roads in the mountains in your Toyota Carolla

Never had tried using gps in my life. I only heard that it is a great way to navigate through is you know how to use and read maps. I now my brother in law in the US use it very often and they loved it very much especially when traveling to long distances. I say technology is of great help to many but I guess it is not perfect that every now and then there are those glitches that happen here and there that makes somebody an unfortunate victim of its imperfections.

I think it depends really, you cannot blame GPS for snow since it's no in their capability to see if there's snow or some type of 'danger', they're there to show you the way that their program thinks is 'shortest'.

But still, I wouldn't go out to some strange place without asking around (on people who have gone there or are living in the area) for the best way to reach the destination.

I may have a GPS around, but I'll always be prepared of what's to come, most especially for a long journey.

It's sad though that those familiar have gone through such an ordeal, you can't blame them for trusting GPS neither could they blame GPS. I just hope that GPS has some way to call for help when stuck or in a no cell-site area.

I love my GPS system. Paper maps wouldn't have been any better for those people than the GPS was. If you're dumb enough to try to drive through deep snow and get stuck it is really irrelevant where the directions came from.

I am sure that a GPS is a great piece of technology and a very helpful one but not foolproof. I would still carry a street directory or a map and not rely on a machine alone especially if I was travelling long distances in unknown territory. Anything technological is great when it is working properly but when it fails it is obviously devastating. These people were very unfortunate I guess to end up in such a situation; thankfully they were rescued in time...