High technology has touched almost every facet of human experience all around the world. Global positioning system, or GPS, technology is no exception. In fact, it has a special place in technology because it has the potential to find the exact location of any person or thing anywhere in the world. That is a great benefit because it means that GPS makes it possible for people never to get lost, anywhere in the world, again. However, it would be foolish to think that GPS has benefits only, especially in the case of GPS technology in automobiles. Even though installation of GPS in cars seems to present advantages, it also presents disadvantages. Surprising social and cultural problems could result if people fail to think about these disadvantages before they adopt the technology. That is particularly true in regard to human privacy and human survival competency. The importance of balancing the ethical disadvantages against the technical advantages of GPS in automobiles is the subject of this research.
GPS technology started out as a military tool. The reason for that can be seen in an explanation of how GPS works technically. The idea of GPS is that a network of 24 satellites can send and transmit signals to a GPS receiving device no matter where on earth it is located. Determining exact latitude and longitude is accomplished by triggering the GPS device to receive signals from four satellites that have the device in their line of sight. The GPS receiver is a computer. The way it automatically calculates exact longitude and latitude by determining how long it takes for the signal to arrive from each satellite's known position in space (Broida, 2003). There may be other remote GPS tracking devices as well that can also interoperate with the satellites and receiver. Thus, those with GPS tracking capability can find the location of the receiver. The military aspect comes about, of course, because the ability to find a specific location t...