This is fluffing fantastic!

Now no one will be walking through Detmer's neighborhood!

REDMOND, Wash. (CBS Seattle) – Microsoft has been granted a patent for its “avoid ghetto” feature for GPS devices.

A GPS device is used to find shortcuts and avoid traffic, but Microsoft’s patent states that a route can be plotted for pedestrians to avoid an “unsafe neighborhood or being in an open area that is subject to harsh temperatures.”

Created for mobile phones, the technology uses the latest crime statistics and weather data and includes them when calculating a route...

http://seattle.cbslocal.com/...-feature-for-gps-devices/

Kind of like Grindr for thugs?

hmm, i don't use GPS. figure i don't need some gadget to tell me that i'm lost.

GPS saved my marriage. If me and my wife didn't get it we would have divorced last family vacation :p

I used my GPS for the first time yesterday and honestly it is worthless. I was taking my daughter to her friends house for a sleepover and I decided to use the GPS instead of her 8 yr old friends drawn out map. It took me 6 miles out of the way and the long way around even though the way the map showed was more direct and there were no high traffic areas.. I saved myself 15 minutes on the way home and used the girls map LOL

I can see this going to court for being discriminating.

A gps isn't for when you are in a familiar place. So using it when you know the area you are in doesn't tell you how valuable the are to you. My occupation as a satellite tv tech has had me in well over a dozen different states working. With out the one time purchase of a gps:
I would spend hundreds of dollars on maps possibly thousands.

Not to mention the time it would take to plot the routes I need to get to the homes in very remote areas.

I wouldn't have a new route plotted instantly for me when I missed a turn.

The time and miles it takes you out of your way in an area you don't know is minor compared to trying to get around with a paper map or the usually worthless directions from locals.

^ what he said

hah, I actually thought about this while living in Seattle because I noticed that the street I walked home on was much lighter than the next one over.

And yeah, we use our GPS when we're traveling, not for errands ;)

And in response to Req - it's true - if I see any of you in my hood I'll cap yo asses

LOL nice

No more getting directed for a shortcut on west Hastings next time I'm in Vancouver then :)

I wish I had this for the two days I have to spend in Seattle next weekend. That place is seriously street by street.