Woman Sues Google After Accident Following Map Directions

Posted
by
Kyle McInnes
on May 31, 2010, at 9:12 AM
in News
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Comments: 5 responses
5 Comments

Google is being sued by a woman for damages after Google Maps directions instructed her to walk along a busy highway that had no pedestrian pathway. The woman followed the directions from her BlackBerry and was struck by a vehicle after being told to walk over a mile on a highway.

Google Maps is a great service but anyone who has used the mapping program knows that it isn’t always 100% correct. I’ve been on road trips where I’ve had to ignore the service entirely. It would be great if Google could provide meta data about the walking conditions, and whether a pedestrian pathway exists, but still nobody should be following the route blindly.

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  • http://blackberrycool.com/ Matt Cameron

    I really hope this doesn't lead to the adding of a lot of warnings to mapping apps.

    It would be a shame if the equivalent of “caution the beverage you're about to enjoy is extremely hot” came to the mobile. The mobile is too small a platform to click through scores of warning messages and would really take away from casual usability.

  • http://www.kryptonsoft.com/outsourcing/blackberry-development-india BlackBerry Developer

    It's very usual if you have tool on your phone and you stuck, you wanted to use it. She does. She used Google Maps to findout the way. I too do. Lot;s of people use. If google map shows there is way and you found there is no such way to get out, you will be disappointed. I believe google has to accept his mistake.

  • Scott

    What Matt said. Let's not punish the people with a brain because of some idiot's mistake. I mean, do we really need our hand held all day long? Are we not capable of using common sense anymore? If there'd been a forest fire across the road, or a giant sinkhole…would she have blindly walked into the hazard and blamed Google?

  • Phil

    Google Maps is terrible… inaccurate with poor driving directions. I ran into a situation where I was depending on Google Maps to help me find my way around metro Atlanta. Although I wouldn't go so far as to sue Google, I remember being angry enough at the time to consider it.

  • Guest

    I just moved to Atlanta and have to agree – Google maps is TERRIBLE around this area. Half the time when I type in an exact address including zip code, the location on Google is over half a mile off. I had been living in Rochester, NY and Google maps there were great, so maybe this is just a regional thing.