[SyneRyder]

I'm not so sure about the "lousy GPS". In an UberX ride I had the other week, the driver & I were joking about how dodgy GPS can be, and we both agreed to ignore its suggestions... Uber was suggesting we take a tunnel that would take us away from our destination, and it's a tunnel no regular taxi driver has ever used with me when driving to that destination before.

Well, after dealing with evening crowds & inner city construction work that night, we had to take a number of detours to get to the destination. And near the end of our lengthy detour, there was that tunnel that we'd opted not to take. We probably would have saved 10 minutes. The driver immediately apologized: "Maybe the Uber GPS was right after all."

[spacemanmatt]

I have learned to stop second-guessing Waze on a similar basis. It has sent me clear around enough traffic snarls and accidents to earn my trust.

[easytiger]

You mean its Navigation Software? I'd hate for GPS to become a synonym for route planning.

[wyclif]

Former land surveyor and GPS/GIS technician here (now a developer). I have a lot of sympathy for your perspective. I remember when consumer GPS became a thing and getting a little Sheldon Cooper on folks who used "GPS" as a synonym for consumer-grade hardware: "don't you mean GPS navigation?"

But that train left the station a long time ago, and I've stopped arguing with people about it because it's a losing battle. Every normal I know, from my parents to my network of friends, refers to Garmin and TomTom auto units as "GPS." They have unfortunately become identified in the common mind with the technology.

[mbrameld]

It's been a synonym now for a long time.

[microtonal]

That does not mean one can't protest it ;). You need a way to refer to an actual lousy GPS as well (long fix time, inaccurate). Lumping everything together makes it hard to be precise (like using 'begging the question' wrongly somewhere else in these comments ;)).

[Doctor_Fegg]

"protest _against_ it"

Sorry. I'm still fighting a rearguard action against you crazy Americans' perversion of our language a "long time" ago.

(I know. I know. Someone will be along in a minute to tell me that "protest it" was original authentic British English centuries ago.)

[microtonal]

"protest _against_ it"

Good point :). As a non-native speaker, I sometimes mess up prepositions... And of course, have a carte blanche to make errors :p.

[spacemanmatt]

I don't like it when words I know lose power either, but language changes under stress of modern usage and wrong becomes the new correct. 'Literal' became the new figurative. And so it goes.