Apparently Apple’s iOS 6 Maps app isn’t the only app giving wrong direction in Australia. Authorities there have issued a warning that Google Maps can also recommend some potentially dangerous routes to users.
Police in the town of Colac, west of Melbourne, say that issues with Google Maps can put users’ lives at risks when driving along Great Ocean Road and in southern Otways, according to a report from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Google Maps has reportedly sent drivers down Wild Dog Road, a one-way road not intended for heavy traffic.
The warning comes on the heels of Victoria police cautioning users that Apple’s iOS 6 Maps app had caused a number of travelers to be stranded in a remote national park. A number of rescue operations had to be carried out as motorists became stranded in the Murray-Sunset National Park on their way to Mildura.
Some travelers were forced to walk long distances without food or water to attempt to fins a cell phone signal in order to call for help.
Apple quickly responded to the issue by pushing out corrections to its mapping data to accurately show the correct location of Mildura.
While no mapping solution is 100% accurate, most issues are not usually life-threatening and usually just amount to inconvenience for the users. One such instance was the mistaken placing of an airfield in Dublin, Ireland via iOS 6 Maps. The town of Airfield was labeled erroneously as an actual airfield.
Minister for Justice Alan Shatter wrote a tongue-in-cheek letter to Apple bringing attention to the error, “I know on occasion mistakes can be made and I am surprised to discover that Airfield, which is the centre of my constituency in Dundrum, has, in Apple’s new operating system iOS 6 maps application, been designated with the image of an aircraft,” Shatter wrote to Apple.
