Apple Maps, Google Maps routed Washington highway drivers onto dirt road
For around a month, both Apple Maps and Google Maps routed eastbound drivers around I-90 construction in Washington State, sending them down dirt roads where they got stuck and had to be towed.
It's a decade since errors in Apple Maps were being described as life-threatening, but it's still possible for changes in real-world conditions to not be represented on the map. From early October 2022 to November 10, 2022, seeming all online maps and GPS route devices were tripped up by construction work.
According to the Seattle Times, the problem began as Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) worked on widening the I-90 from four to six lanes between Hyak and Easton, in Kittitas County. That work required eastbound traffic to be shifted onto a stretch of the westbound side of the freeway.
The mapping services would first have identified that traffic was being slowed down in the area. The way online maps work, every section of road effectively gets a score to do with its length and traffic conditions, and at some point dirt roads and Forest Service roads were being identified as the better route.
WSDOT spokesperson Summer Derrey told the Seattle Times that as the construction work is due to take up to five years, the department had attempted to contact Apple Maps and Google Maps.
"We recognize there's a problem," she said. "We've been emailing them. [But the] mapping services are not easy to get a hold of."
Reportedly neither Apple nor Google responded to WSDOT. However, both mapping services appeared to fix the problem by November 10, 2022.
Read on AppleInsider
It's a decade since errors in Apple Maps were being described as life-threatening, but it's still possible for changes in real-world conditions to not be represented on the map. From early October 2022 to November 10, 2022, seeming all online maps and GPS route devices were tripped up by construction work.
According to the Seattle Times, the problem began as Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) worked on widening the I-90 from four to six lanes between Hyak and Easton, in Kittitas County. That work required eastbound traffic to be shifted onto a stretch of the westbound side of the freeway.
The mapping services would first have identified that traffic was being slowed down in the area. The way online maps work, every section of road effectively gets a score to do with its length and traffic conditions, and at some point dirt roads and Forest Service roads were being identified as the better route.
WSDOT spokesperson Summer Derrey told the Seattle Times that as the construction work is due to take up to five years, the department had attempted to contact Apple Maps and Google Maps.
"We recognize there's a problem," she said. "We've been emailing them. [But the] mapping services are not easy to get a hold of."
Reportedly neither Apple nor Google responded to WSDOT. However, both mapping services appeared to fix the problem by November 10, 2022.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
(camera to catch offenders).
The problem was fixed within 2 days.
As far as the Snoqualmie Pass, they're also adding wildlife overpasses to save both the animals and people.
Admit it, we’re terribly spoiled. Now we’re offended when these technologies don’t completely absolve us from having to engage our brains when faced with the tiniest little wrinkle or deviation from the normal state. Adaptation and ability to deal with change and unforeseen obstacles in real time is key to human survival. I wonder if some of these mud covered drivers would starve to death if all of their forks were in the dishwasher and they were unable to figure out on their own how to employ a “spoon device” - omg - to shovel their chicken nuggets and tater tots into their pie hole?