"The GPS: A Fatally Misleading Travel Companion"

"In remote places like California's Death Valley, over-reliance on GPS navigation systems can be a matter of life and death.

Each summer in Death Valley, a quarter-million tourists pry themselves from air-conditioned cars and venture into 120-degree heat to snap pictures of glittering salt flats. They come from all over the world, but many have the same traveling companion suction-cupped to their dashboard: a GPS.

But when dozens of abandoned dirt roads lie between you and that destination, things can get tricky. That's what Donna Cooper, of Pahrump, Nev., discovered last July on a day trip to Death Valley."

Krissy Clark reports for NPR's Morning Edition July 26, 2011.