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Dashboard GPS says ‘this way,’ I say ‘no way!’
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As a newbie driver, I don’t know my way around Shanghai very well. Even if I did, I admit to a terrible sense of direction.
Every time I get lost or carried off course by traffic flow, I feel I’m a character in the Hollywood movie “Maze Runner.”
The dystopian setting of the movie isn’t that far removed from the urban jungle of Shanghai traffic. Survival of the fittest? In the movie, the characters are trapped by their own fear. In my true-to-life version, I was trapped by a naive belief that a global positioning system could be trusted.
My new Mazda is equipped with GPS. I thought it would be a savior, so I blindly placed my faith in what the GPS told me to do.
It’s embedded into the vehicle infotainment system. Even constant upgrades at dealerships cannot keep it as up-to-date as navigation systems running on mobile phone apps that get live traffic feeds. But I figured it would be easier to follow directions on a big touch screen mounted on the dashboard than by squinting at a small portable device.
How wrong I was! There were several times I was guided by the GPS to the entrances of elevated roads, only to find they were temporarily shut for traffic control. It was a bitter lesson when faulty navigation once made me late for a really important interview with John Lawler, the China head of the Ford Motor Co. When I finally arrived, there was only time left in the interview slot to extend my humble apologies.
“I wish I had bought a Ford car with your SYNC system that enables mobile GPS to be integrated into the infotainment system,” I meekly said, trying to smooth over my embarrassment.
Building a smart car that can stay at the forefront of changing technologies is a new challenge for carmakers. The multiyear development cycles of carmakers mean that each new model just can’t keep up with the dizzying pace of the IT world.
But not many carmakers are like Ford in understanding that they need closer ties with IT industries to integrate the latest technologies into vehicles. It’s not a battle they can win alone.
For me, integration would mean a GPS system that is up-to-date with all the latest road construction, changes in lane markings and hourly traffic conditions.
But that’s in the future — small consolation as I try to improvise with a GPS system containing gremlins.
Several days after I missed the interview, I was in Pudong New Area to cover an evening Ford event previewing its participation in the Shanghai Auto Show. I didn’t dare to be late again.
Following the GPS instructions, I drove into an intersection where access to the street I wanted was barricaded by the police trying to control traffic around a nearby concert.
Police directed traffic to a left detour. I was confused. My GPS unit is supposed to improvise when I go off track and redirect me to my intended destination. It didn’t. So I unwittingly decided to just follow the car ahead of me.
Suddenly, a police officer came rushing up to my car, wielding his baton and yelling. “Back up your car! Back up your car! You are going the wrong way on a one-way lane.”
To give an oncoming car right of way, I was forced to reverse for about a block. Feeling very rattled, I sideswiped a car beside me. It was a Ford Focus.
“It must be sort of bad karma,” I moaned to myself.
The Focus was scratched and so was my car. I was upset and in no mood to report the incident so I could make a claim with my insurance company. Instead, I negotiated with the angry owner of the Ford and agreed to pay her compensation of several hundred yuan.
At finishing work at the Ford event, I drove to the nearby home of my friend Alex, who lived in Pudong, and asked him to drive me home. He’s very familiar with my car and an assured driver. I needed some assurance.
“Look on the bright side,” he told me. “No one got hurt. Little scratches on a car surface don’t matter that much.”
He drove me home, only to find that my bad luck was rubbing off on him. On his taxi ride back to Pudong from my place, Alex lost his wallet in the seat of the taxi. We never found it. Lost were cash and his bank cards and ID.
I felt it was all probably my fault. But eventually, we both agreed that my GPS should take the blame.
The next day, I accompanied Alex when he went to get a temporary ID card. We went in his Chevrolet Lova, using his GPS. The nemesis struck again. Despite its more trustworthy reputation, his guidance unit led us into a run-down slum neighborhood of Shanghai, to a dead-end lane filled with mahjong players and other curious residents. We felt a bit uncomfortable. I worried what would happen if we sideswiped one of the tightly packed parked cars.
In a sulk but with calmness, Alex expertly backed his car all the way out of the lane unscathed. We had survived the “maze” and the speed with which Alex drove off certainly made us “runners.” “Adversity can really bring out the best in people,” I thought charitably.
Another Hollywood movie came to mind — “Need for Speed.” In that film, the hero is on the run, driving a Ford Mustang. In escaping from the pursuing police, he is guided through traffic by an accomplice flying a helicopter. I wish I could afford a luxury like that.
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