I should be more grateful. As comedian Louis CK says, everything is amazing.
But three weeks ago, when Google Maps directed me to drive my car up some stairs in Rijeka, Croatia, it was awfully hard to appreciate the miracle of modern technology.
I'm a cartography lover, so no Google project has directly appealed to me more than Google Maps. I eagerly embraced every new ability: plotting routes, finding businesses, scoping out neighborhoods, booking hotel rooms, exploring destinations, figuring out my location during a hike -- and using the Android app to give me turn-by-turn driving directions.
As Google Maps' driving directions improved in the four years I've been using them, I grew to rely on the app more and more for navigation. It made mistakes every now and again, but gone were the days when I'd pay a rental car company a big premium for a beat-up sat-nav device.
Alas, my love affair ended during my August vacation in Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy. My Nexus 5 phone and I were lead navigators for a two-car family trip, and I was led astray so often that it became a running joke.
