This Uber Driver Went Full Michael Scott And Blindly Followed His Navigation System Down A Flight Of Stairs

Dent7 years ago

My dad makes the same joke every time he pulls out the handheld Garmin that he got on sale at a Gander Mountain (RIP) in 2006: “I don’t know why we blindly follow these things. It could navigate you right off a cliff and people would still follow it.” Yes, Dad. It could do that, but hopefully you could also use some common sense. Now what do you say we put that away and instead use your shiny new iPhone 6 that at least has maps from this decade.

People who blindly put their faith in technology are idiots. They’re hilarious idiots, but still idiots nonetheless. I mean back in the day my dad was pulling out his pocket compass that was comfortably chained to his hip and pointing it in the direction he wanted to go. That’s how he got places (I think). But now he’s going to fully trust a computer? Doesn’t seem to make much sense, but I guess it can happen to even the best of us. Even Michael Scott wasn’t able to save his PT Cruiser from the shortcomings of GPS.

So when an Uber driver in San Francisco got his car stuck on some stairs, I wasn’t that quick to judge.

From Business Insider:

An Uber in San Francisco got stuck on stairs Monday after driving down a pedestrian walkway outside a Safeway store on Market Street.

The car, a white Toyota Camry, got stuck at about 1:23 p.m. local time, according to the San Francisco Police Department. The car was being driven by a human at the time of the accident, according to an employee at Safeway.

People at Safeway called a tow truck to move the car shortly after the accident, but it had not yet been freed 30 minutes into the ordeal.

A spokeswoman for the SFPD said that the driver exited the car uninjured. Two Uber passengers were in the car at the time of the accident, the driver told Business Insider.

Really appreciate them clarifying that it was indeed a human that made this mistake. Don’t you even think to blame cars of the self-driving variety. Their hands are clean in this matter. Now why in the world would anyone drive down a flight of stairs?

The driver, Fred, told Business Insider that he was using the Uber map at the time of the accident. The app instructed him to go down the stairs, he said.

Fred, who has driven with Uber for less than a year, said he believed Safeway needed to make changes to its parking lot so that this didn’t happen again. He said he would never drive in the area again.

“THE MACHINE KNOWS!” – Fred, I assume. As an employee of Uber, Fred was just following the Uber navigation. Is that not his job? If you didn’t want him to go down the stairs, then why did the app say “go ‘head?” As previously mentioned, Fred is kind of an idiot but that doesn’t mean I’m not on his side. He was just trying to do what the machine told him to do. It could have just as easily been a shortcut staircase instead of pedestrian stairs and then he would have looked like a genius.

Probably a good idea to just avoid that area entirely from here on out. It’s like taking a different way home to avoid bullies. Really not worth the trouble, right Dale and Brennan?

Technology is moving too fast for our society. Maybe we take some time to master simple things like getting from point A to point B without it ending in some horrific incident before we’re moving on to more advanced stuff. In the words of Michael Scott, “In the end, life and business are about human connections. And computers are about trying to murder you in a lake. And to me the choice is easy.” Five stars for effort, Fred. You’ll get ’em next time..

[via Business Insider]

Image via Twitter/ KRON4 News