[thaumasiotes]

> You are in a intersection and the voice says "Drive north for x miles/km".

Does that really happen? I have never experienced it. How do they tell which way is north?

Highway 101 runs through San Jose pretty much due east/west, but because it also runs up to San Francisco, it is officially a north-south highway. So you check your position on the map and you're traveling due east along an east/west road. Is that "north"? (Of course not. It's "south".)