Following Your GPS Over A Cliff Is No Excuse For Bad Driving

from the in-case-you-were-wondering... dept

Verve alerts us to the news that one of the many drivers who have been chronicled following their GPS over their own common sense has discovered that "following my GPS" is not an acceptable defense in court. In this case, the guy followed the GPS's commands down a "narrow cliffside path" until the car got stuck against a fence, overlooking a sharp drop. He's now been convicted of "driving without due care and attention." The prosecutor wasn't exactly kind, but apparently the following was convincing to the judges:

The path was not designed for motor vehicles yet Mr Jones slavishly continued to follow the satnav system to the point where his eyes and his brain must have been telling him otherwise to such a degree he was not exercising proper control of the vehicle

For his part, the guy admitted he was an "idiot," but said he was just following instructions:

I might have been an idiot for taking the wrong road or carrying on but I have not driven without due care or attention.

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People Tend To Follow The Advice Of Experts Over Their Own Common Sense

from the rational-behavior dept

Just as yet another new startup is launching, designed to give individuals "expert" decision making advice, reader ChurchHatesTucker points us to a new study that notes that people all too often stop thinking after being given "expert" advice -- even if that advice is bad. While the folks behind the study use this as another crack to make fun of economists who believe in rational behavior, I'm not sure they're right. What's more likely is that individuals are still acting rationally. It's just that they believe that the "experts" really do have more information/knowledge/wisdom about a certain topic -- and thus they trust it over their own info. That's still quite rational. The real question should be just how often the "experts" give really bad advice. The problem with the study in question was that the expert was giving bad advice that he wouldn't normally give, making much of the actual experiment kind of meaningless. This sort of thing really is only a problem if the experts frequently give bad advice.

Still, this probably isn't too surprising. We've seen over time that people tend to rely on any sort of "expert" input, even if it's from a computer (such as driving off a cliff thanks to GPS or believing a financial model that suggests the likelihood of massive subprime mortgage defaults is almost non-existent). It's not so much about going against common sense. It's just that we tend to believe the "authority" over common sense, because we know we don't have all the info that we need in many cases -- so, we assume (often reasonably) that the authority or expert is better prepared to direct us than our own common sense.

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Do Emergency Calls Need More Technology Or More Common Sense?

from the if-you-can't-hear-this-message,-dial-5-now dept

A guilty verdict in a rape and murder case in the UK is raising some questions about the country's emergency call system and its ability to deal with callers who can't speak. In this case, the 17-year-old victim dialed 999 (the British equivalent of 911) while she was being abducted, but she was obviously unable to speak directly to the operator without alerting her killer. The system followed its usual procedure for silent calls, giving the caller a recorded message to either tap their phone or hit the 5 key twice. That is fine for somebody whose only problem is that they can't speak; but for users who can't listen to the message and don't know to hit keys (which doesn't have to be an extreme case, but could also be the victim of a stroke or other medical emergency), it doesn't offer much help. Authorities are working on a text-based system for people with hearing and speech impediments, as they should, but again, that leaves many incapacitated people out in the cold. There will surely be a search for some technological solution to the problem, but maybe what's needed is some more common sense. For instance, is it very well publicized that people should hit the 5 key if they can't speak? Why not advertise that and make it more well known as a start? Inevitably, this sort of case will attract a lot of attention to the supposed technical shortcomings of the emergency call system, and indeed, it's something that should be a target for constant improvement. But the solutions to consider shouldn't only be technical ones.

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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Would You Believe People Trust Their Real Friends Over Bloggers?

from the oh-my! dept

In what may be one of the most pointless studies done in quite some time, a research firm has discovered to its own amazement that people tend to trust their own friends more than well known bloggers. Well, I should certainly hope so. Were there really people out there who thought that folks with high trafficked blogs actually held more sway than a personal friend? This is really nothing more than a retread of a (much more academic) report back in January noting that so-called "influentials" don't really have very much influence. What that study found was that "word of mouth" works, but where those recommendations come from tend to be somewhat random. So things bubble up from everywhere, rather than starting with well-known bloggers. This shouldn't be surprising to anyone, but after a few years of ridiculous media coverage suggesting that top bloggers have influence, it's nice to see a few reminders that influence is a much more democratic system.

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