There's an anxiety that takes hold when people are lost. It can make people very irritable and cause them to rash things because it feels better to do something even if it's the wrong thing. I've found this out from years of backpacking using a map and compass. GPS software is a great thing but I can understand why some people don't trust it, it's not without it's faults. You can't trust it explicitly. IMO because of this technology we are losing our ability to know where we are in a space. Following the linear directions from a GPS app we don't picture where we are in relation to our destination. Your friend probably had memorized how to get to his job at that exit by arriving at it from a particular direction. Deviation from the norm threw him off. It's interesting how technology changes us and we become dependent on it. I grew up reading maps before GPS having had delivery jobs, still have the county map books. There was a time when people navigated by stars at night and by following flowing water.

Tell him to look into Dyspraxia.