When taking a trip by car, you used to have to print out lengthy sets of directions from an online site, or rely solely on your intuition and an atlas. Things have changed, however, and now you can get gps car navigation systems in your vehicle that will guide you just about anywhere you want to go. Some new models of cars and trucks automatically come with this feature, and others can be bought separately.

I was in Florida where it can be impossible to find your way around, especially in the packed tourist cities like Orlando. We were staying on Disney property so my brother could attend a conference, so my days were free to explore the area. Being by myself, I didn’t want to get lost, so I figured it would be as good a time as any to do some research on auto navigation systems. I rented an Explorer with a GPS unit installed in the dash, and I immediately began to test it. I wanted to see if it could accurately lead me back to my hotel and to other short destinations that I already had the directions for.

It did a pretty good job, though it got a little confused when I ignored a turn command on a one-way street and it had to figure out an alternate route. And that’s the thing about auto navigation systemsas hard as they try to charade as a good human guide, they’re not human. Even GPS devices are flawed in the way that all machines are, and they can’t give you hints based on information that is happening right then in the front seat of your car. They can’t remind tell you to pay attention to where you’re going, or to check the street signs or make a quick turn, they can merely serve as a guide to the best of their programmed ability and you need to do the rest.

Now, practically every car on the road may be equipped with a GPS, but this does not really mean that you ought to join the bandwagon yourself. If you don’t want to spend the money on handheld GPS just yet, you can get the same service through your cell phone. There are services that will send directions through your cell phone, but this will still cost you some money. This might be the way to go if you don’t travel a lot, and only need driving directions a few times a year.

Mark Green tries to divide time between two hobbies: gadget reviews and communication studies. Handheld GPS are a wave of technology that is definitely here to stay, and which keep getting more and more sophisticated and more widespread. Get to know more about your favorite GPS devices.

– Mark Green