Apple Maps Flaws 'Life-Threatening,' Australian Police Warn

[Renegade]

Can we say...

OUCH!!!


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/10/apple-maps-life-threatening-australian-police_n_2271499.html?utm_hp_ref=tw

Apple Maps Flaws 'Life-Threatening,' Australian Police Warn After Rescuing Stranded Drivers

Apple's new iOS 6 Maps has been called inaccurate, inefficient and "almost unusably bad" in the three months since its debut, but now it appears the application could be life-threatening.

That's according to police in Mildura, Australia, who issued the startling warning after having to rescue several people who were stranded without food or water after attempting to find the town of 30,000.

"We've had at least four documented cases," senior Sgt. Stephen Phelan told the Guardian. "The map puts [the town] at least 70 kilometres from where it should be. We have had people bogged down in sunset country."

Last week, one man was stranded for 24 hours in the wilderness of a national park more than 40 miles from his desired destination, CNET reports.

From the state of Victoria's department website:

Tests on the mapping system by police confirm the mapping systems lists Mildura in the middle of the Murray Sunset National Park, approximately 70km away from the actual location of Mildura.

Police are extremely concerned as there is no water supply within the Park and temperatures can reach as high as 46 degrees, making this a potentially life threatening issue.

It doesn't get much more damning than that.

I suppose Apple Maps is just killer software.

[Carol Haynes]

If it weren't so worrying that would be very funny.

The question is, I suppose, how long before Apple are forced to withdraw the crappy mapping software?

[Renegade]

If it weren't so worrying that would be very funny.

The question is, I suppose, how long before Apple are forced to withdraw the crappy mapping software?

NO NO NO NO NO~!

You have it all backwards... It's kind of like this:

[attachimg=#]

[4wd]

Quite frankly, if they have trouble following these things:



then they shouldn't be allowed on the road in the first place.

Exactly how dumb do you have to be to not reverse your course once you realise there isn't a town there?

AFAIAC, if you're stupid enough to rely on SatNav you deserve everything that happens to you.

[Carol Haynes]

AFAIAC, if you're stupid enough to rely on SatNav you deserve everything that happens to you.

I think the confusion arises because if you buy a SatNav and it is as bad as Apple Maps you could prosecute the SatNav manufacturer for reckless endangerment! On the other hand Apple products are sold as hand held devices with a maps App - they don't actually claim to be a full SatNav capable device. Neither does Google Maps, incidentally, even though it is much better than Apple Maps.

On my Samsung I have Google Maps which you can use as a SatNav but when you use it it does warn that it is a product in beta stage of development and not guaranteed to work flawelessly.

Having said all that when will some Apple users grow a pair and form a class action against this lunacy!

[wraith808]

Having said all that when will some Apple users grow a pair and form a class action against this lunacy!

Lets not start that...

[4wd]

AFAIAC, if you're stupid enough to rely on SatNav you deserve everything that happens to you.

I think the confusion arises because if you buy a SatNav and it is as bad as Apple Maps you could prosecute the SatNav manufacturer for reckless endangerment!

You've missed my point, these "intelligent" humans chose to switch off their brain cell, ignore all the input from their five senses and blindly follow a system that is known to have inaccuracies, (I'm referring to the majority of automobile based SatNav - one would hope the aircraft/ship version is better).

Maybe I was just raised in the wrong era...the one where one of the basic human instincts for survival was to know where you are.

[barney]

brain cell

Methinks, sir, thou hast the right of it.  It's most usually brain cells, but some of these folk seem somewhat under-equipped  .

[Carol Haynes]

True - I agree SatNav does cause brain switch off - and I have even succumbed on a couple of occasions. Having said that anyone relying on mapping software that gets a street location wrong in a town can figure it out - when the town is 70km from where the map says it is a bit of a serious issue!!

With regards to the sign pointing the correct way we have a problem in my area with kids moving the pointers for fun. Not been so bad in recent years but a few years back you pretty much had to ignore many of the road signs and use a map if you aren't sure where you needed to turn!!!

[4wd]

True - I agree SatNav does cause brain switch off - and I have even succumbed on a couple of occasions. Having said that anyone relying on mapping software that gets a street location wrong in a town can figure it out - when the town is 70km from where the map says it is a bit of a serious issue!!

With regards to the sign pointing the correct way we have a problem in my area with kids moving the pointers for fun. Not been so bad in recent years but a few years back you pretty much had to ignore many of the road signs and use a map if you aren't sure where you needed to turn!!!

It's not about the signs nor the SatNav being wrong, it's about using the 1.4kg of grey slop between the ears.

The roads leading to a major rural centre you would assume to be hard surfaced, have a fair degree of traffic, (even at night), and for Mildura, surrounded by farmland and orchards and on the banks of a river.

By contrast, the NP where they were consists of compacted dirt roads, (no bitumen within 40-70km), hardly any traffic, (I was in the NP last month for a day and saw no other vehicles), and the landscape is waterless, low-lying scrub, gum trees...and on all four sides it has a highway they had to either turn off or cross over.

It isn't that the SatNav misplaced 30,000 people, that's irrelevant - it could just as easily been a paper map, it's that the idiots completely ignored their surroundings.


...and yes, I may have got a bit worked up over this...

[Shades]

brain cell

Methinks, sir, thou hast the right of it.  It's most usually brain cells, but some of these folk seem somewhat under-equipped  .

You could entertain the possibility that most people have the amount of braincells that they need...but that these braincells only work in shifts 

[Stoic Joker]

It isn't that the SatNav misplaced 30,000 people, that's irrelevant - it could just as easily been a paper map, it's that the idiots completely ignored their surroundings.

+1  ...And 2 points for Charles Darwin.

[Renegade]

Well, to play Devil's Advocate here...

It's pretty reasonable to assume that any portion of a map could be wrong, and that the general directions are correct. So, continuing on the path could be construed as the best option, hoping that the errors stop, and that normalcy returns.

Remove warning labels. Thank you.

[40hz]

The most life threatening aspect of Apple maps, or GoogleMaps - or even paper maps - are the people who consult them while driving.

I'd bet drivers looking at smartphones resulted in more deaths than getting lost in a desert because of a faulty map ever did. Or will.

Just my  

[4wd]

So, continuing on the path could be construed as the best option, hoping that the errors stop, and that normalcy returns.

Exactly how far down the path to drowning should you decide to swim?

Remove warning labels. Thank you.

While I agree wholeheartedly with this the fact remains that it wouldn't work....they haven't read the existing one anyway.

[KynloStephen66515]

[offtopic]

@Carol - You guys had snow up there yet?  I'm relying on you to tell me if you get some, and if it starts heading south!

[/offtopic]

Obligatory 'Apple Sucks'

/resume

[Carol Haynes]

[offtopic]

@Carol - You guys had snow up there yet?  I'm relying on you to tell me if you get some, and if it starts heading south!

[/offtopic]

A bit on the highter ground but not much - seems to have had more on the NY Moors and Lake District. Blizzards expected tomorrow - and I am expected to go to a farm in the high moors - might not happen!

Obligatory 'Apple Sucks'

/resume

That news?

Interesting thing on BBC Radio 4 this morning - Apple have allowed Google to offer a GoogleMaps App again on their products.  for Google and  for Apple.

[Renegade]

Interesting thing on BBC Radio 4 this morning - Apple have allowed Google to offer a GoogleMaps App again on their products.  for Google and  for Apple.

And for potential Darwin Award winners, as 4wd has pointed out.

[TaoPhoenix]

Everyone here keeps saying things about using brain cells, but for those of us with zero navigation on good days, you are supposed to be able to rely on the GPS to have a clue. So yes, if the Apple maps go from almost usable to this level of silliness, sure, that qualifies that someone goofed.

[wraith808]

Everyone here keeps saying things about using brain cells, but for those of us with zero navigation on good days, you are supposed to be able to rely on the GPS to have a clue. So yes, if the Apple maps go from almost usable to this level of silliness, sure, that qualifies that someone goofed.

Every GPS says that the maps are for reference only.  True, this is worse than other implementations, but in truth this is the reason that I still print out directions to places that I don't know even with a GPS.  Just like I'm not going to trust one place for reference or definitions, I'm not going to trust one place for directions.  To give a good example, if you use most (not all) GPS products to go to my old house, you'd end up in a river.

[Stoic Joker]

Everyone here keeps saying things about using brain cells, but for those of us with zero navigation on good days, you are supposed to be able to rely on the GPS to have a clue. So yes, if the Apple maps go from almost usable to this level of silliness, sure, that qualifies that someone goofed.

When sitting at an intersection, my GPS said "turn left here" ... But it was up to me to grasp the fact that the light was red.. Responsibility for ones own actions and all that, Ya know?

That being said, I too am an honorary member of the Fakawi Indian Tribe (assuming anyone remembers that old joke).

[barney]

That being said, I too am an honorary member of the Fakawi Indian Tribe (assuming anyone remembers that old joke).

Hm-m-m ... you're older than I'd thought  .

[tomos]

I remember the punchline
(at least I think it's the punchline) -

jumping up and down and shouting where-the...

[Stoic Joker]

I remember the punchline
(at least I think it's the punchline) -

jumping up and down and shouting where-the...

@barney - Me too especially in the morning (snap, crackle, damnit..)