Is it their fault when some dingus […] goes walking into the forest where no path is? No.
Picking a single aspect to assign total blame is kinda pointless, and so is trying to address that through Yes/No. Every incident is the compounded result of multiple contributing factors. One of these contributing factors is that Google Maps displayed inaccurate information, even though common sense should have worked as error correction. The fault is in our stars.
If you ask me for directions to my house, and as part of the directions I give you, I tell you to drive your car down a staircase, and you do,you are entirely responsible for your automobile accident.
Uh, sure? Walking off trail in the woods isn’t as surrealistic as taking a car down a staircase so the analogy doesn’t seem useful to me. Even if the instructions of driving down some stairs were truthful it would still be blatantly illegal/unsafe.
A less silly example: it’s possible to sue the government if one gets into a crash due to bad signage. Even if the driver is the one who technically broke the law, the city may be liable for confusing signage that contributes to accidents.
[I]t’s possible to sue the government if one gets into a crash due to bad signage.
That’s because the government operates the roads.
If you ask me for directions to my house, and as part of the directions I give you, I tell you to walk down a path in the forest where no path actually exists, through pretty serious terrain, and you have no gear to speak of, and you go anyway, you are entirely responsible for having to be rescued and airlifted out by helicopter.
This guy, and anyone like him, is not obliged to follow a map application.
I used the car down a staircase story because it happens all the time.
Ah sorry, when you said “I tell you to drive your car down a staircase” I thought you meant you gave literal “take the stairs with your car” as instructions, instead of giving an abstract map/drawing that the person would follow. Then yeah, in this case the analogy makes more sense. My mistake.
I tell you to walk down a path in the forest where no path actually exists […] you are entirely responsible for having to be rescued and airlifted out by helicopter
Picking a single aspect to assign total blame is kinda pointless, and so is trying to address that through Yes/No. Every incident is the compounded result of multiple contributing factors. One of these contributing factors is that Google Maps displayed inaccurate information, even though common sense should have worked as error correction. The fault is in our stars.
If you ask me for directions to my house, and as part of the directions I give you, I tell you to drive your car down a staircase, and you do, you are entirely responsible for your automobile accident.
Uh, sure? Walking off trail in the woods isn’t as surrealistic as taking a car down a staircase so the analogy doesn’t seem useful to me. Even if the instructions of driving down some stairs were truthful it would still be blatantly illegal/unsafe.
A less silly example: it’s possible to sue the government if one gets into a crash due to bad signage. Even if the driver is the one who technically broke the law, the city may be liable for confusing signage that contributes to accidents.
I used the car down a staircase story because it happens all the time.
That’s because the government operates the roads.
If you ask me for directions to my house, and as part of the directions I give you, I tell you to walk down a path in the forest where no path actually exists, through pretty serious terrain, and you have no gear to speak of, and you go anyway, you are entirely responsible for having to be rescued and airlifted out by helicopter.
This guy, and anyone like him, is not obliged to follow a map application.
Ah sorry, when you said “I tell you to drive your car down a staircase” I thought you meant you gave literal “take the stairs with your car” as instructions, instead of giving an abstract map/drawing that the person would follow. Then yeah, in this case the analogy makes more sense. My mistake.
lol k
No, that’s exactly what I meant. You apparently didn’t click the link.
https://www.kron4.com/news/driver-claims-she-was-following-her-gps-down-staircase-police-say/
That’s a recent incident, there have been others. Other kinds of “people following their GPS” incidents are here:
https://theweek.com/articles/464674/8-drivers-who-blindly-followed-gps-into-disaster