3mo ago

Google Maps shortcut leaves Bihar family stranded in Karnataka's dense jungle

www.indiatoday.in Google Maps shortcut leaves Bihar family stranded in Karnataka's dense jungle

A Bihar family, misled by Google Maps, spent a night trapped in Bheemgad forest before local police rescued them the next morning after they regained network to seek help.

In Short
Bihar family follows GPS, ends up deep in forest territory
Forced to spend night in car amidst wilderness
Walks 4 kms to find network, rescued by cops next day

8 comments

There have been a few articles recently blaming "google maps" for people driving into stupid places. The previous one I saw was where someone drove off the end of a bridge that had been washed out a year ago and not yet rebuilt.
In both cases, I feel the driver was to blame. They were the one operating the vehicle and ignoring all the indications of danger around them, not google.
If google maps told you to drive off a cliff ...
- I'm just imagining a future where Google Maps gets compromised and then the attack commits genocide by making it tell people to crash there car.
  
  Sounds like a black mirror episode
- iirc the actual cause of the crash was a complete lack of barricades leading to the bridge, because India.

I don't think this is Google's fault. You should not just take what it says as hard objective fact.

I'm sure they would have done better with mapquest.
- MapQuest uses OpenStreetMap data, so that may actually be true for areas where Google Maps has poor coverage.

So they kept driving deeper into the forest....then didn't turn around....and to make matters worse... decided to leave the car and walk 4km away to find a signal ...the fuck.

8 comments