Photo: Bogdan Popa/autoevolution/Google
If you still needed proof that blindly trusting Google Maps is a bad idea, here's the case of a 22-year-old nurse who wanted to go to the Harts Range rodeo but ended up in the middle of nowhere with a stuck car.
The woman used Google Maps to find the directions to the venue but started driving towards the actual ranges without knowing the application offered the wrong directions.
So she drove and drove until she figured out something might not be right because she was still driving along a fence line with Google claiming she had almost arrived at the destination.
It was the point when the worst happened. The car got stuck after entering a ditch, so she couldn't go backward or forwards. Digging the car and continuing the journey didn't work, so she turned to her smartphone to call for help. The device didn't have a cellular signal, but luckily, the smartphone sported emergency SOS (most likely, the nurse owner had a new iPhone, as these are the most common phone models allowing one to call emergency teams without a cellular signal).
She texted and waited, hoping someone would find and save her. The nurse had no food but only 18 beers, as she wasn't prepared to spend the night in the Central Australian desert. She eventually fell asleep and woke up with the phone's battery almost depleted. She sent another text message to tell the first responders she'll stay in the car and wait for help.
A few hours later, a plane searching for the woman spotted her location, instructing the police where to go. The first responders found the woman in good condition but convinced that using Google Maps to navigate in the outback was not a good idea.
Google already commented on the incident, claiming it's looking into the navigation error and promising to update the maps with the correct information.
In the meantime, I have the same recommendation for everybody using Google Maps. If you rely on navigation to drive to unfamiliar places, don't use a road that looks unsuitable for the car. As much as possible, get to know the route before jumping behind the wheel – even Google Maps allows you to explore a certain region from your smartphone, so the more information you get, the more predictable the journey will be.
Google Maps blunders can sometimes become fatal, as drivers follow the navigation app blindly and enter roads that haven't been used for a long time. A few years ago, two Russians left the highway for a shortcut, only to end up stranded on an abandoned road with no food and water and no cellular signal. The brutal Siberian weather proved fatal for one of them.
So she drove and drove until she figured out something might not be right because she was still driving along a fence line with Google claiming she had almost arrived at the destination.
It was the point when the worst happened. The car got stuck after entering a ditch, so she couldn't go backward or forwards. Digging the car and continuing the journey didn't work, so she turned to her smartphone to call for help. The device didn't have a cellular signal, but luckily, the smartphone sported emergency SOS (most likely, the nurse owner had a new iPhone, as these are the most common phone models allowing one to call emergency teams without a cellular signal).
She texted and waited, hoping someone would find and save her. The nurse had no food but only 18 beers, as she wasn't prepared to spend the night in the Central Australian desert. She eventually fell asleep and woke up with the phone's battery almost depleted. She sent another text message to tell the first responders she'll stay in the car and wait for help.
A few hours later, a plane searching for the woman spotted her location, instructing the police where to go. The first responders found the woman in good condition but convinced that using Google Maps to navigate in the outback was not a good idea.
Google already commented on the incident, claiming it's looking into the navigation error and promising to update the maps with the correct information.
In the meantime, I have the same recommendation for everybody using Google Maps. If you rely on navigation to drive to unfamiliar places, don't use a road that looks unsuitable for the car. As much as possible, get to know the route before jumping behind the wheel – even Google Maps allows you to explore a certain region from your smartphone, so the more information you get, the more predictable the journey will be.
Google Maps blunders can sometimes become fatal, as drivers follow the navigation app blindly and enter roads that haven't been used for a long time. A few years ago, two Russians left the highway for a shortcut, only to end up stranded on an abandoned road with no food and water and no cellular signal. The brutal Siberian weather proved fatal for one of them.
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