And it’s always possible that you can’t retrace your path due to one-way streets or other road limitations.
If I was going to a party at a location I was unfamiliar with I would absolutely use GPS in both directions and not assume that the return route was just a retracing of the path I took to get there.
I think the primary blame here lies with whoever is responsible for maintaining/marking that bridge. That is a serious hazard. I can easily see not noticing it was out on a dark and stormy night, particularly if my GPS was telling me it was good. And triply-so after a party where I might not be paying 100% attention (due to various reasons).
I’m just saying that at this early stage, it’s entirely reasonable for the plaintiff to name Google. They’re putting out e-maps and inviting people to rely on them. If they show a non-existent bridge, that’s potentially grounds for liability. And if they didn’t have a system in place to respond to warnings that they showed non-existent bridges on their maps, I could see an argument tag too is grounds for liability. What was their duty of care in this situation?
People saying “make Google pay” should consider the consequences. Unless there is some unusual specific negligence involved here, we would likely all pay if a precedent of liability is set. Potential liability for accidents might result in mapping services taking a more conservative approach and simply withdrawing service in remote areas when any uncertainty exists.
Oh, sure. I understand the principle that you sue everyone that might be liable, as laid out eloquently by @Procrustus. I thought we’d moved past that.
What does Google say WRT how they wish people to use their app? Without diving into the terms and conditions, from this user’s superficial perspective, it seems as tho they intend their directions to be something drivers can rely on. No, you should not abandon all care, but I’ve never gotten the perception that Google wishes every aspect of their maps to be presumed unreliable.
It is always surprising to see how differently different people think and act. I have a hard time imagining myself needing a navigation app to direct me to any place within 5 miles of any place where I have lived for any number of months. I might look an address up to get an idea of where it is and recommended routes, but I guess I’ve made the conscious decision to NOT offload my responsibility for being aware of my surroundings and my ability to navigate around them.
There’s a related issue I’ve often wondered about. I spend a lot of time hiking and scrambling off trail in remote backcountry areas. There are online hiking/climbing groups where people who have used routes provide “beta” for others. This is informal guidance on whether routes exist at all, routefinding guidance and level of difficulty. People with extensive experience have also written books, of course.
I think there’s an informal understanding in all communities that it’s caveat emptor, and of course there is no absolute measure of what is “safe” - it will depend entirely on the skills of the individual.
I think if anyone were ever successfully sued for giving bad beta (absent actual malice) it would be a disaster for these informal communities, and make hiking and climbing far more dangerous, because people would simply be unwilling to pass on their experience.
Of course, Google et al are commercial entities, so it’s not exactly the same. But we need to think carefully about what our expectations should be for liability.
When we were house shopping as part of a cross country move I would Mapquest (this was almost 20 years ago) the route from the houses that the real estate agent had lined up for us to see to my new workplace.
We saw a house we liked and it seemed like the commute was about 9 miles, 20 minutes. Fortunately I’m a paranoid dude and I set out to follow those directions on a Monday morning at 7:30 to see what the real life traffic conditions would be. Before I would put in an offer. My wife thought this was insane.
Yup, the MapQuest route took you through a state park which you could not drive through. You could enter at three points but there were big metal barriers to prevent you from driving through. You came in from entrance A, you left from entrance A. One of the routes had been cut off by a reservoir more than 20 years earlier. About a quarter mile of the road was under several feet of water most of the year.
We also had a Tom-Tom GPS device 15-20 years ago. It also directed you onto roads that were blocked off, prohibited or physically impassable. On a fairly regular basis. Even though we frequently downloaded the map updates.
Again, some people, me included, lack a sense of direction. I simply don’t have that ability. I’m not off loading my responsibility. I’m using a tool to compensate for a lack of ability. It would be great if they had an equivalent one for those lacking in empathy.
For myself, I always use a navigation app because it lets me focus on operating the vehicle instead of thinking about the next turn. I’ll do a sanity check on the nav’s route before I leave, but after that just let it do its thing. And I can pay better attention to traffic and other impediments to safe travel.
I could have sworn I had in the past been prompted to check a box to acknowledge a disclaimer that driving was my responsibility and to look at the road, not the map, but I haven’t seen that for a while.
When I go to use the ‘live’ AR view in Google Maps (which I’ve never tried until just now), I get:
‘Remember to obey the law and pay attention to your surroundings, especially at junctions’
So I assume the disclaimer box on the regular maps might have just remembered my acknowledgment and stopped asking me to reconfirm something I already accepted.
The Terms of service state:
Actual Conditions; Assumption of Risk
When you use Google Maps/Google Earth’s map data, traffic, directions and other content, you may find that actual conditions differ from the map results and content, so exercise your independent judgment and use Google Maps/Google Earth at your own risk. You’re responsible at all times for your conduct and its consequences.
Your pin is pointing at a house. The “bridge” is buried in some trees. Here is the street view. interestingly, it has barricades! Something isn’t right.
That probably depends a lot on where you live - I would absolutely use a GPS for a place within 5 miles of home where I have never been before. Otherwise, I won’t know about one way streets , dead end streets, places where I have to drive out of the way to get to an overpass/underpass.
I remember reading in one news report that the absence of barricades was attributed to “vandalism”, without any explanation of exactly what that meant.