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[ultrafxr]

On a road trip last week in southern Arkansas and Garmin wanted to send me down a dirt/gravel road even though I clearly had unpaved roads listed as an avoidance.  Has happened many times before but this road was also marked 'dead end.'   

That's an all time first - Garminized to go down a dead end dirt road, lol.   

[RoadRunnr]

They all have good and bad coverage, it is a great tool to HELP, but just like buying a map at the local gas station, they are not always up to date.
I get a kick out of some people, I was talking to someone a couple weeks ago, they said they kept going in circles, cause the GPS didn't know about a new route, and it would keep recalculating and sending them back.

When used in combination with the road signs, it is a great help and a guideline, don't use it as the gospell.

all this was just my $.02

[ultrafxr]

Oh I don't!  Like you said it is just a tool - and a darn good one most of the time.  I just thought it was funny as chit that the info was so wrong in this case.  Needless to say we just drove on by laughing all the way to the next road that could get us back on route. 

[porthole]

On a road trip last week in southern Arkansas and Garmin wanted to send me down a dirt/gravel road even though I clearly had unpaved roads listed as an avoidance.  Has happened many times before but this road was also marked 'dead end.'  

That's an all time first - Garminized to go down a dead end dirt road, lol.  

If you make a note of the area and send it to Garmin that is one of the ways they update the maps. If they don't know they can't update.

I have found that it can take 10 years though for some roads to be added. If they were a paper street long enough odds are good they will make the program when the asphalt is down. Or if never paved shows up like your dirt toad dead end.

Just adds to the adventure though.

[lynyrd1959]

Sounds like a fun way to go to places you would otherwise never see!  That is if you have the time. Like RoadRunnr said, you always have to have the trusty map & compass.

[1abastarsmda]

Mine took me on a little joy ride yesterday, all via little narrow back alleys.  I think the guys behind me thought I knew a shortcut, until we ended up back on the same road that we started on, just a few blocks further.

A few years back, I changed my settings while at a gas station in W Va to avoid toll roads.  I ended up on about a 30 mile single lane, mostly dirt mountain road that netted me about 1 mile when I got back to the main road.  I still ended up on the toll road.  It seemed like a small price after than adventure.

[krypto2011]

Funny story, I got a call from a fellow towing company this winter. He got a call from a roadside assistance company that had a customer off the road and needed a winch out. Long story short, the guys GPS sent him down a snowmobile trail and he followed it!!! My fellow tow company didn't have the necessary equipment needed for the recovery so he called my in to help with my tow trucks. We ended up over a half mile in the woods pulling this guy back to the main road and let me tell you in wasn't cheap.  Definitely is a good tool to have in the tool box but like any other tool if you don't know how to properly use it, it can be an expensive education!!!

[CVODON]

I have been using mulitple Garmin GPS units since Mar of 2005. I do keep them updated, I check quarterly and install if available, I buy new ones occassionally. In my job I go to a min of 5 addresses in 4 counties daily in both rural and city areas. I have never been sent down a dead end road, not once an alley or been run in circles. I did once come to a wall that had been built across a city street in a subdivision, I sent a email to Garmin and they responed with the actual explanation of the cause and thanked me. I have folks who house I have just been guided to tell me what pieces of crap Garmin are, but when I ask which model they have... they don't own one, it is what they had heard. So this is a Kudo to Garmin for me, I have come to the point I could not do my job as efficently without one. I used AAA maps for 25 years and the best one ever, imho, never approached being as good as the cheapest Garmin ever made>

[porthole]

Sounds like a fun way to go to places you would otherwise never see!  That is if you have the time. Like RoadRunnr said, you always have to have the trusty map & compass.

I call it GLBGPS (glib-gips)

Getting Lost By GPS

I have had some of my best rides doing that, you find roads that you would never have thought to travel. Sometimes great, sometimes gravel, sometime not so great, but always an adventure.

Kathy was GPS leading us on this ride back from MV, and the road looked just like the sign 
The sign was 10-12 miles in