A few months ago I spent the day with a relative whose driving seems to get worse all the time. Now that she has a smart phone her nose is buried in it. She's become so reliant on GPS navigation that she's forgotten how to drive on roads she's known for decades. Not exaggerating even a little bit.

Example... we had to run several errands between a couple of local government buildings, only a mile apart. Took all day and many trips. Every single time she'd begin driving before activating the GPS voice navigation. So each time the directions were slightly different. Some trips she'd go the short route -- straight one mile, then left; same on the return trip. Other trips she'd go miles out of the way, looping around, always adhering slavishly to whatever the voice navigation told her.

But the worst part? Even with the voice navigation she'd still bury her nose in the smart phone to look at the map.

All in heavy traffic. I don't know how we avoided collisions, and we came awfully close several times. She never even noticed.

There must be thousands of people in every city driving this way. It's nuts.