Martha McKay of the Wichita Eagle recently tested the VZ Navigator, a GPS navigation system offered by
Verizon for its Motorola V325 cell phone. The service became available in January.
In a similar manner to
TechnoRide’s testing of OnStar’s
Turn-By-Turn service, McKay entered her destination address into the cellphone, which downloaded the directions. McKay
then followed “Michelle’s” voice prompts and found herself driving a half-mile past her destination,
straight to the Bergen County Jail. A Verizon representative later explained that the VZ Navigator’s mapping
directions are provided by Navteq Corp. and such inaccurate information was probably an aberration.
Uh-huh.
McKay at least can take some comfort that VZ Navigator didn’t guide her over a cliff.
[Source: The
Record via The Wichita Eagle]