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Driver Playing Pokémon Go Caught More Than He Had Bargained for

When Tesla introduced the Autopilot, everybody knew it was just a matter of time until somebody crashes using the new feature. Now picture this: a GPS-based game that you play on your mobile devices deeply rooted into the Pokémon universe. And then think of the people who care about stuff like Pikachu and Snorlax.
Pokemon Go crash 2 photos
Photo: Auburn Police Department
Pokemon Go
That's right people, get your women and your children off the streets, it's going to be a massacre out there. Hordes of mindless zombies will be roaming around, smartphone tightly grasped in their hands, trying to "catch them all" even though they have no idea what they're going to do with them afterward.

Expect a surge in the number of jaywalkers that pay even less attention to the outside world than usual, and if you happen to be walking on a busy sidewalk, we hope you've been perfecting your tackling skills because you're going to need them. Or you can just give up the fight, allow yourself to get bitten and join the horde.

But the most worrying fact is that some of these bots will also be driving cars. Yup, expect the case of this 28-year-old man in New York who was playing Pokémon Go at the wheel to be just the first in a series of apparently uncaused crashes that will pop-up all over the world. Luckily, he only hit a tree as his car veered off the road, but it could have been anything else. The man wasn't injured, but his car has seen better days with its business end completely destroyed.

The Auburn Police Department used the incident to release a list of five advice for Pokémon Go players, shared via Syracuse.com: "Don't play the game while driving a car or bicycle; don't trespass on private property just to "catch" (nice use of the quotation marks) a Pokemon; avoid staring down at your phone and be aware of hazards like roadways, drop-offs and waterways; be cautious of who you share your location with; don't travel alone."

Instead of coming up with this long list, they could have summed it up with just one line: use your common sense. Then again, that's a very subjective set of rules so, for some, maybe it's better to have everything laid out in front of them like that. In which case, we'd just like to add "don't hit trees."
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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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