Aussie Police Warning re: Apple Maps

[craznar]

Police have warned that Apple's glitch-filled Maps app could get someone killed, after motorists looking for the Victorian city of Mildura were instead guided to a wilderness area.

ABC News (Australia)

 

[Beeplance]

LOL I know the Apple maps issue is bad, but not to the extent of getting people killed. The POIs are really miserable and routes are often convoluted, at least outside of the states.

Fair warning for Apple. They have to really buck up after they see this news.

Lol the true location is miles away....

 

[therationalist]

OUCH,... a govt calling apple on their ****** maps.

 

[macsrcool1234]

Another source:

http://www.vicpolicenews.com.au/mor...oncerned-with-apple-ios-6-mapping-system.html


Don't the motorists have any common sense if they end up in the middle of nowhere?

Don't get me wrong, Aplpe Maps are an awful heap of junk but you should still rely on some good old common sense and not be 100% reliant on a device....

 

[Jagardn]

Don't the motorists have any common sense if they end up in the middle of nowhere?

My gut tells me no...

Have you ever seen the signs like "WARNING: Do Not stick your face in the lawnmower while it is running. May cause serious injury or death"
That sign is on your lawnmower because someone already did it.

 

[MattInOz]

I would think a wilderness area would be safer then Mildura.

 

[Cripps]

The real problem is the stupidity of the users not the maps.
The area in question has plenty of road signs if only they had bothered to look.

I have noticed that even highly intelligent people become so obsessed with their GPS systems that they lose the ability to relate to their surroundings and to read and interpret road signs.

 

[AppleFanatic10]

Police have warned that Apple's glitch-filled Maps app could get someone killed, after motorists looking for the Victorian city of Mildura were instead guided to a wilderness area.

ABC News (Australia)

That's kind of ridiculous. People should have enough common sense to turn around if they find themselves going near the "wilderness".

 

[Zwhaler]

That's kind of ridiculous. People should have enough common sense to turn around if they find themselves going near the "wilderness".

Or they trust a company like Apple to lead them to safety as their product is advertised to do (give directions). Apple should have had the common sense not to release Apple Maps at all, or at least put a disclaimer that some of the information isn't accurate and it shouldn't be used for navigation where safety is an issue, use an alternate navigation service, or Maps is still in beta, ANYTHING!
http://www.apple.com/ios/maps/
Apple could get into a class action lawsuit, there ad specifically says YOU WON'T GET LOST!!!

 

[Beeplance]

Or they trust a company like Apple to lead them to safety as their product is advertised to do (give directions). Apple should have had the common sense not to release Apple Maps at all, or at least put a disclaimer that some of the information isn't accurate and it shouldn't be used for navigation where safety is an issue, use an alternate navigation service, or Maps is still in beta, ANYTHING!
http://www.apple.com/ios/maps/
Apple could get into a class action lawsuit, there ad specifically says YOU WON'T GET LOST!!!

I think people who wouldn't normally get lost, got lost after using Apple maps.

Like Apple themselves said, "iOS 6 takes you in entirely new directions." I couldn't agree more.

 

[ike08]

I think people who wouldn't normally get lost, got lost after using Apple maps.

Like Apple themselves said, "iOS 6 takes you in entirely new directions." I couldn't agree more.

lol This makes my day. I guess it sucks when your marketing backfire.

Apple map shows half of my city in black and white (Palmerston North, New Zealand), and the University I study at in a middle of a paddock. Not sure how long before they fix it .

 

[CB1234]

lol This makes my day. I guess it sucks when your marketing backfire.

Apple map shows half of my city in black and white (Palmerston North, New Zealand), and the University I study at in a middle of a paddock. Not sure how long before they fix it .

Mate you are already in the wilderness - at least if you get lost (using Apple Maps) you will end up somewhere in midst of civilisation instead of some wilderness !!!!

 

[SomeDudeAsking]

Another source:

http://www.vicpolicenews.com.au/mor...oncerned-with-apple-ios-6-mapping-system.html


Don't the motorists have any common sense if they end up in the middle of nowhere?

Don't get me wrong, Aplpe Maps are an awful heap of junk but you should still rely on some good old common sense and not be 100% reliant on a device....

If some was travelling to that town/city for the first time from the highway, it would be easy to assume what Apple Maps gives is the correct location. Places can be far between in Australia and travelling on outback roads is a common thing. It's just that Apple Maps suck.

----------

That's kind of ridiculous. People should have enough common sense to turn around if they find themselves going near the "wilderness".

It's a common thing to have to travel through some wilderness in Australia to get to a destination since there is so much land. The common sense thing here would be to ditch Apple Maps.

 

[8a22a]

Or they trust a company like Apple to lead them to safety as their product is advertised to do (give directions). Apple should have had the common sense not to release Apple Maps at all, or at least put a disclaimer that some of the information isn't accurate and it shouldn't be used for navigation where safety is an issue, use an alternate navigation service, or Maps is still in beta, ANYTHING!
http://www.apple.com/ios/maps/
Apple could get into a class action lawsuit, there ad specifically says YOU WON'T GET LOST!!!

It did show this for me recently.

 

[8a22a]

Let's see how quick an error is corrected after it's been on the news.

It hasn't yet.

 

[throAU]

Don't the motorists have any common sense if they end up in the middle of nowhere?

As someone who lives here (Australia) - we have very large distances between settlements. If you were a tourist, you could quite easily end up in the middle of nowhere not knowing that it is the wrong "middle of nowhere".

----------

That's kind of ridiculous. People should have enough common sense to turn around if they find themselves going near the "wilderness".

See above.

Generally to get between towns here, you need to go through up to a couple of hours of "wilderness".

 

[Beeplance]

Let's see how quick an error is corrected after it's been on the news.

It hasn't yet.
View attachment 382632

If Apple manages to fix it within this week, it'll already be "achievement-unlocked" for them. Bad news spreads like wildfire, so I think Apple HQ would've noticed this piece of news by now.

 

[Zwhaler]

It did show this for me recently.

View attachment 382628

That's good, but maybe isn't enough for users who will accept it regardless without another easy mapping solution app on their device, which they would have as per iOS 5 and earlier. Basically I'm stressing the importance of keeping Google Maps available, there was no reason not to include it! Separate from making it available on the app store, if users are left with Apple Maps by default and no way to access Google via an app then they are most likely to use Apple navigation despite the warning.... thinking "oh it's probably inaccurate somewhere else and not here".

 

[Abazigal]

Not defending Apple, but how is this necessarily news when other GPS services aren't 100% accurate themselves and have been known to mislead people into dangerous places as well (I recall reports of people driving into ponds because of this).

When it's another company, it is a regrettable error hardly worthy of mention in the news, but when it's Apple, suddenly, it becomes some heaven-shaking event?

 

[PsyOpWarlord]

I applaud Apple. They implemented this to try weeding out the idiots by sending them somewhere to die off .. /s

 

[SomeDudeAsking]

Not defending Apple, but how is this necessarily news when other GPS services aren't 100% accurate themselves and have been known to mislead people into dangerous places as well (I recall reports of people driving into ponds because of this).

When it's another company, it is a regrettable error hardly worthy of mention in the news, but when it's Apple, suddenly, it becomes some heaven-shaking event?

Other GPS services don't make it a regular event to get you lost like Apple Maps does.

 

[Heb 7:4]

Not defending Apple, but how is this necessarily news when other GPS services aren't 100% accurate themselves and have been known to mislead people into dangerous places as well (I recall reports of people driving into ponds because of this).

When it's another company, it is a regrettable error hardly worthy of mention in the news, but when it's Apple, suddenly, it becomes some heaven-shaking event?

There have been four cases so far of people ending up 70 kilometres away from town in the scorching wilderness because they were relying on apple maps. Of course it's news.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/dec/10/apple-maps-life-threatening-australian-police

 

[mnemonix]

When it's another company, it is a regrettable error hardly worthy of mention in the news, but when it's Apple, suddenly, it becomes some heaven-shaking event?

Christ you people love to be obtuse.

BECAUSE APPLE MAPS IS AN ORDER OF MAGNITUDE WORSE THAN ANYTHING ELSE.

Entire towns in the wrong location, multiple, major landmarks and POIs in major & capital cities missing and incorrect and entire regions of lesser countries showing no data whatsoever. Execs have been fired, the CEO issued a public apology, and it's about time the remaining 'deniers' just accepted that Apple Maps is generally not fit for purpose, even if for some users it does happen to 'work fine for me'. Good Lord this is tiresome.

 

[725032]

Not defending Apple, but how is this necessarily news when other GPS services aren't 100% accurate themselves and have been known to mislead people into dangerous places as well (I recall reports of people driving into ponds because of this).

When it's another company, it is a regrettable error hardly worthy of mention in the news, but when it's Apple, suddenly, it becomes some heaven-shaking event?

When people end up nearly dieing because of this then that is news... Wouldnt you agree.

Would you still use Apple Maps in these parts of Aus?

 

[Nale72]

Not defending Apple, but how is this necessarily news when other GPS services aren't 100% accurate themselves and have been known to mislead people into dangerous places as well (I recall reports of people driving into ponds because of this).

When it's another company, it is a regrettable error hardly worthy of mention in the news, but when it's Apple, suddenly, it becomes some heaven-shaking event?

If there had only been as many/few errors in Apple's Maps as in other naviation softwares, like for example Google Maps or Navigon I'm sure there hadn't been such a fuzz. Especially since it's a new software. But this release has just been too bad to ignore. I believe that knowing the man in charge of Maps at Apple got fired shortly after it's release, it should be a pretty good indicator that Apple agree that the Maps are really bad.