Learning to Trust the GPS
As we travel around the country
I remember when there was no such thing as GPS or cell phones. We traveled with an atlas book in the car. We got lost a lot more often back then, but we get lost sometimes now too.
GPS was invented in 1973. The Global Positioning System, formally known as the Navstar Global Positioning System, was initiated as a joint civil/military technical program in 1973. It didn’t become available to the public until 1983 and that was only for air travel. President Ronald Reagan authorized the use of GPS by civilian commercial airlines in an attempt to improve navigation and safety for air travel. The first production car with a built-in GPS navigation system hit the roads in 1990. By that time we were married with two young children. And there was no way we could afford one of those expensive cars with a GPS system in it.
So how accurate is the GPS system nowadays?
According to gps.gov, it depends.
GPS satellites broadcast their signals in space with a certain accuracy, but what you receive depends on additional factors, including satellite geometry, signal blockage, atmospheric conditions, and receiver design features/quality.
As we travel around the country in areas we are not familiar with, we cause ourselves to be dependent on…
