Photo: Bogdan Popa/autoevolution/Nicholai Willingham for Bakersfield Now
Google Maps can be a brilliant piece of software or a horrible driving companion, depending on how you use it.
A couple of families who recently took the fastest route suggested by Google Maps when traveling through Corcoran, California, probably go for the latter option, as they ended up being forced to sleep in their cars and eat only watermelon and chips after they got stuck in the mud.
The incident happened earlier this month when Google Maps sent the cars on Avenue 88 west of Highway 43, most likely as an alternative route with a faster ETA. After driving on a muddy road for quite some time, one car eventually got stuck in the place where two other vehicles were already struggling to get out.
After trying to pull the cars out of the mud using all kinds of ideas, including putting signs under the wheels or digging holes to get some traction, 11 people had no other option than to sleep in their vehicles. With no water and forced to eat only watermelon and chips, the drivers reached out to the California Highway Patrol late at night, only to be told that sending help wasn’t possible at the time.
The next day, the stranded travelers contacted the Sherriff's Office, with several units, including a tow truck and a fire truck, eventually sent to get everyone out of the mud. Ironically, the tow truck also got stuck in the mud, so a farmer with a tractor stepped in to get the vehicles out.
Sure enough, sleeping in the car in the middle of nowhere and not getting any help from authorities sounds awful, but trusting a navigation app blindly is something every single driver out there should avoid doing. The likes of Google Maps and Waze always try to find the fastest route to a destination, so occasionally, they could send you to roads where your vehicle doesn’t necessarily fit.
Based on the photos shared by the local media, the road where the three vehicles got stuck was unpaved, so most likely, the Google Maps users also ignored setting up the app correctly, Google Maps comes pre-loaded with a dedicated option to avoid unpaved roads, and if this setting is disabled, the suggested routes could eventually get you to muddy, closed, or difficult roads just because this is the fastest possible way to reach the destination configured in the app.
Eventually, this should be a lesson to all Google Maps users: if a suggested route looks dangerous, you'd better stick with the main road. Reducing the ETA by five minutes isn't worth the risk of sleeping in the car and surviving with watermelons, no matter how delicious they are.
The incident happened earlier this month when Google Maps sent the cars on Avenue 88 west of Highway 43, most likely as an alternative route with a faster ETA. After driving on a muddy road for quite some time, one car eventually got stuck in the place where two other vehicles were already struggling to get out.
After trying to pull the cars out of the mud using all kinds of ideas, including putting signs under the wheels or digging holes to get some traction, 11 people had no other option than to sleep in their vehicles. With no water and forced to eat only watermelon and chips, the drivers reached out to the California Highway Patrol late at night, only to be told that sending help wasn’t possible at the time.
The next day, the stranded travelers contacted the Sherriff's Office, with several units, including a tow truck and a fire truck, eventually sent to get everyone out of the mud. Ironically, the tow truck also got stuck in the mud, so a farmer with a tractor stepped in to get the vehicles out.
Sure enough, sleeping in the car in the middle of nowhere and not getting any help from authorities sounds awful, but trusting a navigation app blindly is something every single driver out there should avoid doing. The likes of Google Maps and Waze always try to find the fastest route to a destination, so occasionally, they could send you to roads where your vehicle doesn’t necessarily fit.
Based on the photos shared by the local media, the road where the three vehicles got stuck was unpaved, so most likely, the Google Maps users also ignored setting up the app correctly, Google Maps comes pre-loaded with a dedicated option to avoid unpaved roads, and if this setting is disabled, the suggested routes could eventually get you to muddy, closed, or difficult roads just because this is the fastest possible way to reach the destination configured in the app.
Eventually, this should be a lesson to all Google Maps users: if a suggested route looks dangerous, you'd better stick with the main road. Reducing the ETA by five minutes isn't worth the risk of sleeping in the car and surviving with watermelons, no matter how delicious they are.
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