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Family sues Google after Maps allegedly directed father off collapsed bridge
(www.theguardian.com)
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this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2023
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The bridge was broken years though, so Google should not have been using it for routes. The country is definitely at fault for not having signs up, but Google isn’t blameless in this.
The company literally directed this man to his death. Why are all these commenters going to bat for a trillion dollar company that refused to pay a programmer for the ten seconds it would take to fix thee issue?
I once approached a red light and the satnav commanded me to "go straight". I almost did so, because a robot voice told me to do it. Would it have been the map's fault because it didn't know the traffic light was red? No, it would've been me, because I didn't pay **enough ** attention for a moment, following a command blindly. Drivers have to be aware of their surroundings all the time.
Here in this case there should have been a road block and hazard signs in front of it.
This all reminds me of the case where some people sued a weather app because it didn't warn them of bad weather and they completely relied on a single source of information.
Because following a GPS blindly is stupidity...yes in this case it has been out 10 years.. but what if it was out 10minutes or what if it was some other hazard in the road or some road workers fixing somthing... you should be paying attention to the road and signs....now I agree signs should have been there. But just because the satnav says okay doesn't mean driver can just blindly follow, you are a dangerous driver not aware of your surroundings and in wet conditions going too fast for the distance you can safely see.
If it had only been out for ten minutes, then there would have been no way for Google to update the map. You realize the whole issue is that they've been contacted about it multiple times over around a decade right?
There were no signs or barriers, as the article mentioned, and it was a rainy night. This dude had no way of knowing or seeing something was wrong until it was too late.
It is simply not the responsibility of google to prevent this tragedy. It is firstly the responsibility of every driver to make sure to be able to see where you are driving and be able to stop in time in case of unexpected. What if there was a person in his path and he could not stop in time for example?
And secondly it is the responsibility of the local authority/agency to put up signage and block the road.
Sure, i am not a fan of giant megacorps either, and it makes sense to be angry at google for not correcting the wrong map data. But strictly from a responsibility perspective, i don't think google should be held accountable here.
I also believe the thinking "directed this man to death" is too extreme. It simply is a map, with route information. There is no automatic driving or compulsion to follow its direction, the driver has to make safe decisions by himself imo.
Then that would be on him, because google did not receive multiple reports of a person in the middle of the road for ten goddamn years, and it's easier to spot a person in the middle of the road than it is to spot this
Why do you want a already too powerfull company to be in charge of road safety?
I want the local goverment to be responsible for that.
I don't want them to be in charge of road safety, I want them to not suggest routes that get people killed