This kind of incident can very much be the first clinically visible sign of a dementia process, even when the person has appeared perfectly normal until that very day.
In geriatric medicine and neurology, this exact scenario (an elderly person who is still driving, socially active, living independently, and then suddenly making a completely inexplicable, massive navigational error while following the GPS “like a robot”) is classic for the very first manifestation of Alzheimer’s disease or another neurodegenerative dementia.
Key points that make specialists immediately suspicious of sudden-onset or revealing dementia in this case:
1. Total loss of situational awareness despite intact basic driving skills
He drove 1,900–2,000 km flawlessly on highways for 20 hours without accident or police stop, but never once questioned why the trip to the doctor was taking him through four countries [or overnight, when the doctor's office would be closed - Ryan]. This dissociation — perfect procedural skill (driving) but complete absence of executive oversight (“Hang on, this can’t be right”) — is extremely characteristic of early frontal-variant Alzheimer’s, frontotemporal dementia, or Lewy-body dementia.
2. No insight afterward
When the police called him in the hotel in Brela, he reportedly showed no surprise, no embarrassment, no “Oh my God, what did I do?” — just calm acceptance that the GPS had a problem. Lack of insight into the magnitude of the error is a red flag.
3. Age 85 is peak risk
The incidence of new dementia diagnoses rises sharply after 85. Many people are diagnosed precisely because something like this happens: the first major error that can no longer be hidden or explained away.
4. Numerous identical cases in medical literature
Neurologists in France, Germany, Switzerland, and Scandinavia have published several almost identical cases over the past 15 years: elderly drivers ending up 1,000–2,000 km away (often in Croatia, northern Italy, or southern Germany) after setting out for a local errand. In virtually all documented cases where the person was properly evaluated afterward, a new diagnosis of Alzheimer’s or another dementia was made. Some were even still driving legally with a valid medical certificate weeks earlier.
French geriatricians interviewed about this specific November 2025 case (e.g. on France Info and in La Nouvelle République) explicitly said:
« C’est typique d’un premier épisode révélateur d’une maladie neurodégénérative »
(“This is typical of a first revealing episode of a neurodegenerative disease”).
Bottom line:
While it is still possible that it was “just” an extraordinary GPS glitch combined with extreme trust in technology, most dementia specialists who have heard the details of this case would bet heavily that, when (or if) he eventually gets a full neuropsychological work-up, he will be diagnosed with a dementia that has just crossed the threshold into the clinically visible stage.
So yes — this can absolutely be the very first outward sign, even with zero previous symptoms noticed by family or doctors. It happens more often than most people realize.
