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ORDERS FOLLOWED
It’s a German thing:
An 80-year-old German motorist has obediently followed his navigation system all the way into a huge pile of sand, abrubtly bringing his trip to an end.
The motorist ignored a motorway “closed for construction” sign and crashed his Mercedes into a pile of sand further down the road, police have said.
“The driver was following the orders from his navigation system and even though there was a sufficient number of warnings and barricades, he continued his journey into the construction site,” a police spokeswoman said.
(Via Currency Lad)
An 80-year-old German motorist has obediently followed his navigation system all the way into a huge pile of sand, abrubtly bringing his trip to an end.
The motorist ignored a motorway “closed for construction” sign and crashed his Mercedes into a pile of sand further down the road, police have said.
Well, following the orders OR poor choices.
The 80 year old, should have had A 2006 Mercedes-Benz G-Class G55 AMG, V8, Supercharged, 5.5 Liter.
With one of these dudes, the 80 year old could have gone over or through the huge pile of sand depending on the speed he had obtained by smashing the accelerator to the floor….lol.
Texas Bob
Scroll through (http://www.kbb.com) Kelley Blue Book
for the Mercedes-Benz G-Class G55 AMG 4WD, they have them at a ‘book value’ of $105,275.00.Hell saved ya’ $45,000 or so…less the $26.73, if ya’ want?....LOL. AND this is before
strong armingdickering.Well I can understand how that German made that mistake. I once had a GPS systems in a Hertz car I rented in St. Louis. I originally planned not to use it but I quickly found I liked the luxury of having someone knowledgeable tell me how to get to my destination. I especially liked the voice, a perky woman’s voice that I guessed belonged to a lithesome yet buxom woman, wearing stilleto heels and sheer black hose, sitting cross-legged on her stool with the GPS phone to her red luscious lips.
In short order, I was asking her what restaurants were in the area and how to get to them. She would even tell me how to get out of the parking lot I was currently parked in. In a matter hours she gave me more navigational help than my wife gave in years of marriage.
One day on the spur of the moment I decided to drive to Hannibal, Missouri to see Mark Twain’s boyhood home and the place where Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn grew up. I entered my destination in the GPS system. I almost heard an ooooo of approval. My friend asked me whether I wanted to go the shortest route or the quickest route. I said the shortest. She then told me what route we were going to take and how to begin.
After driving 20 miles I decided I wanted to take the road that runs parallel to the Mississippi River, to see the scenery. So without telling the GPS gal, I just turned right. Just did it. No warning. Within seconds, she said “you took a wrong turn”. I didn’t respond. Then “you’re not going the right way”. No response by me. Then “you’re going the wrong way”. Too bad I thought. Just shut up and go along for the ride.
Within seconds, she asked me, contritely I believe, if I wanted to go another way. I punched in Yes. She then gave me a new route, a nice one that ran parallel to the river. She gave me what I wanted. We got along just fine.
But that was my situation. Who knows what the German had. As far as we know, it could have been one with a voice like Andrea’s. Can you imagine it? “Keeping driving straight. Straight I said! No, don’t stop, keep moving. Don’t make me get out my paddle you feckless piece of Kraut!”
Hell I would have ran the car into the sand pile too.
Posted by wronwright on 2006 10 11 at 12:51 PM • permalinkSad to say but we did something like this (not so bad) with a paper and human - a street directory and me as navigator
Posted by aussiemagpie on 2006 10 11 at 12:52 PM • permalinkWould-be car jackers stymied by stick shifts, too Dave S. Even the slimy underbelly of society are pussified.
Posted by Some0Seppo on 2006 10 11 at 02:05 PM • permalinkwronwright, re. GPS gal. Do you have her number?
Posted by Bruce Rheinstein on 2006 10 11 at 02:18 PM • permalinkGPS are great - I use my Garmin most trips visiting clients around town - but not infallible. The problem in Australia is the Sensis mapping, which most GPSs licence. It is fine 85% of the time, but take it with a grain of salt.
It regularly says ‘turn left’ when it means ‘turn right’. It tried to send me up up the Craigieburn bypass 6 months before it opened. If you ask for ‘shortest route’ it’s likely to send you up a cobbled laneway in Melbourne’s older suburbs.
The security/unlocking process is a right pain in the butt. Makes MS look positively benign.
Some housing estates are just missing (even not-so-new ones) and upgrades are too expensive to be worth paying for - $150 a pop.
Still, I like it. I know Melbourne pretty well but the Garmin regularly sends me on routes I wouldn’t have thought of and which are better and shorter than I would have come up with. Most of my visits are after dark and then it is terric - obscured street signs and invisible house numbers don’t annoy me.
Posted by walterplinge on 2006 10 11 at 07:01 PM • permalinkwronwright your post brought up all sorts of mental imagery for this Aussie who knows what a ‘route’ or rather, ‘root’ is:
I especially liked the voice, a perky woman’s voice that I guessed belonged to a lithesome yet buxom woman, wearing stilleto heels and sheer black hose, sitting cross-legged on her stool with the GPS phone to her red luscious lips.
<snip> I entered my destination in the GPS system. I almost heard an ooooo of approval. My friend asked me whether I wanted to go the shortest “route” or the quickest “route”.
I bet she did, I bet she did. Wink, wink, nudge nudge.
I said the shortest.
Strange choice.
She then told me what “route” we were going to take and how to begin.
Like, you needed to be told?
Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 10 11 at 07:32 PM • permalinkAh, the German propensity for obeying orders decisively given. I heard a story once bearing on the orders are orders idea.
A German civilian was shot (not fatally) by an American guard while trying to steal TVs from the PX on a US base. Not a bad shot, 150 meters under low light conditions with the target moving laterally across his line of fire, and he got the perp with the first round. A committee held an inquiry, a German officer, an American officer, and the mayor of the German town the base was adjacent to. They called in the guard.
“What were your orders?”
“Sir, to shout halt three times and if he did not halt to fire.”
“What did you hear?”
“Sir, I heard the alarm on the PX go off.”
“What did you see?”
“Sir, I saw this guy moving with a TV under each arm.”
“What did you do?”
“Sir I shouted halt three times then fired one round when he didn’t halt.”
Then they called in the guard from the next post and asked him what happened.
“Sir, I heard the alarm of the PX go off then I heard the next guard warn the perp then fire one round.”
“What did he say?”
“Sir, he said “halt three times” then fired.”
The two Germans looked at each other, then one shrugged and said “Orders are orders.”
Posted by Michael Lonie on 2006 10 11 at 07:41 PM • permalink#23 SCD
Like, you needed to be told?
Not really. I just needed to be told by that sultry voice.Posted by wronwright on 2006 10 11 at 09:45 PM • permalinkA 2006 Mercedes-Benz G-Class G55 AMG, V8, Supercharged, 5.5 Liter.
Sure makes my Series 3 Land Rover look like a booger!
Posted by Vanguard of the Commentariat on 2006 10 11 at 11:07 PM • permalinkIt seems zet haf veys of making him valk.
Posted by Simon Darkshade on 2006 10 12 at 10:25 AM • permalink
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Clearly a case of human error, Tim. Tim? Tim? What are you doing near my memory banks, Tim?