Google Maps leads German tourists to week-long survival saga in Australian swamp
- Reference: 1708711335
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/02/23/google_maps_australian_jungle/
- Source link:
Philipp Maier and Marcel Schoene wanted to drive 1,000 km (621 miles) from the tropical city of Cairns, Queensland, on the southeastern Cape York Peninsula to the small town of Bamaga, some 40 km (24 miles) from the northernmost tip.
But around the rural town of Coen, the pair obeyed Google's navigation service and turned off Peninsula Development Road, the main transport link for the region, onto a dirt track and into a national park.
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"We decided, 'OK, let's follow Google Maps because Google Maps knows maybe more than we know'," Maier [2]told 9News .
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While that is almost certainly true, such blind faith turned out to be their undoing. Sixty kilometers into their bushwhacking adventure, their four-wheel drive got stuck in mud and they had to continue on foot.
Getting lost in the wilderness of Cape York Peninsula is not good news for anyone. The region is vaster than Great Britain and home to just 18,000 people.
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"Once they realized they were being led up a dry gully they pulled back and stayed with the vehicle as long as they could before making the decision to walk out," Queensland Parks and Wildlife ranger Roger James said.
A dry gully, also known as a wadi, is a dry river bed that can quickly fill with water when it rains.
[6]Australian supercomputer 'Taingiwilta' comes online this year with [REDACTED] inside
[7]Australia has no next-gen HPC investment plan and clouds can't fill the gap
[8]A visa to fill Australia's empty tech jobs is getting more expensive, but maybe better value
[9]Australian Tax Office probed 150 staff over social media refund scam
The pair's week-long walk back to Coen for help featured thunderstorms, river crossings, withering heat, and close encounters with Australia's infamously dangerous wildlife.
"We tried to build a shelter. But that didn't work really well," Maier said. "So we slept under the sky. It was raining the whole time but it was OK."
He added that a crocodile lurked in the last creek they had to cross. "We just ran through the creek because it was our only opportunity."
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When they finally made it back to civilization, park rangers were able to recover their vehicle. A Google spokeswoman said the company was glad the men were safe and was investigating why the Maps service was directing people into the wilderness.
"I feel like in a movie, like in a bad movie but it was like with a happy end," Maier said.
It was indeed a happier ending for these two, but others have not been so lucky when following Google Maps. Philip Paxson was allegedly using the service when it led him over a broken bridge to his death in 2022, according to [11]lawsuit filed against Google last year. ®
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[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZdkjnGT@GgReI3ybYSZRmAAAAUs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://www.9news.com.au/national/german-tourists-lost-for-more-than-a-week-after-google-maps-mishap-far-north-queensland/508ae1ff-3862-408a-9466-c3c2a5e3290c
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[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/21/taingiwilta_australia_defence_supercomputer/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/20/australia_no_hpc_science_plan/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/19/australia_tech_visa_job_visa_application/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/14/ato_operation_protego_tax_scam/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZdkjnGT@GgReI3ybYSZRmAAAAUs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/21/google_maps_bridge_death/
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Basically everything is trying to kill you there...
(I actually enjoyed my trip, nothing scary, sketchy, etc. )
And so the culling begins
This is clearly the fault of an AI in the background trying to get rid of humans. These pesky biological entities are no good and cannot be used for anything sensible anyway. Better get rid of them by giving them good advice.
Skynet will be proud of its ancestral achievements.
Unless I'm mistaken...
It looks like Google Maps is still offering the same suggested route that departs from the Peninsula Development Road?
https://maps.app.goo.gl/naGwV7NAYF5qE1Vs6
Re: Unless I'm mistaken...
That detour is in the right spot, but it isn't anywhere near 60 km long, and the satellite photo suggests a fairly reasonable dirt road. It still doesn't really make sense for Google to suggest that instead of the main road, but it doesn't look outright suicidal. Either Google fixed something recently, or the couple did something worse than just follow Maps. Both sound plausible to me.
Another one for Rise Of The Machines, methinks.
Google maps is a very handy thing to have on your phone, but it does do weird shit on occasion. Last year it took me on an unplanned expedition over the top of the peak District, for reasons known only to Google. Beautiful scenery, to be sure, but not on my agenda for the day. On another occasion, while navigating around a busy town, it simply gave up - I drew up to a T junction and my phone proudly announced that it didn't know where to go from there. Again, I have no idea why, and normal navigation resumed a few moments later, having left it to the meatsack to choose left or right.
Somehow, I don't think I'd be trusting it to get me safely through a crocodile infested hellhole in the back end of nowhere!
"Somehow, I don't think I'd be trusting it to get me safely through a crocodile infested hellhole in the back end of nowhere!"
I know there is climate change .... but ... the Peak District must have changed quite a bit !!!
:)
This is Royston Vasey and you are welcome to it.
I've had issues with my TomTom on occasion despite the maps being fully up to date. It managed to get me stuck in a busses-only bus station in Beeston, Notts much to the chagrin of the bus drivers. On other occasions it has tried to send me the wrong way down one-way streets. Tried a Garmin one time and it completely lost the plot and tried to send me down a narrow dead-end side street instead of my programmed destination ten miles away. Sometimes the route these devices give is too creative for their own good, instead of leaving you on fast moving dual-carriageways they can send you down narrow twisting country roads, covered in mud, following farm tractors for miles on end and dodging nutters driving too fast from the opposite direction.
The point about Ai was probably close to the mark
I bet Google Maps "learns" roads by following peoples movements.
It certainly "knows" some unofficial shortcuts near me (like the back way to the motorway from the services).
If only there were some sort of handy backup.
You could make it out of paper, perhaps stapled as a book or folded as a flat sheet, and at any any convenient scale. Then you could keep one in the car...
(tried buying a map book recently? They're a lot cheaper than they used to be... but I still can't find an all-europe except at silly small scales.)
There should be warning signs on airports and all other major points of entry into Oz: "Do not blindly trust Google Maps. Death by GPS is a thing here."