Posted on 01/23/2023 7:23:03 PM PST by george76
It was easy to make jokes last summer when reports surfaced that Google Maps and other navigation systems were wrongly directing people off of Interstate 80 and rerouting drivers through Colorado.
Sure, it added eight hours to a trip, but it wasn’t necessarily dangerous.
But seven months later, it’s still happening. And in the winter months, it could be deadly.
The problem is these navigation apps continue to send the wrong information primarily on or around Interstate 80 in southcentral Wyoming. The Rock Springs area seems to be the hot spot.
On one day last month, the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office rescued nine people who got stuck on unmaintained seasonal dirt roads.
The drivers didn’t intentionally seek them out, they were guided there, said Jason Mower, Sweetwater County’s public affairs director.
“Each was mistakenly misled to the same remote patchwork of untrodden tertiary and quaternary roads thanks to their in-car GPS navigation systems,” Mower said. “All of them were marooned by modern technology.”
It’s happening in Carbon County too. It got so bad that the county had to close roads, build fences and make signs that say, “Your GPS is wrong. This road is closed!!”
Dec. 13
But on Dec. 13, it got particularly hairy.
Early that day, a family of three from Wisconsin was trying to get to Rock Springs from Casper when their SUV’s navigation system put them on an unmaintained road in the Red Desert during a blizzard.
“They were 40 miles north of the Interstate between Rock Springs and Rawlins — in the middle of nowhere,” Mower told Cowboy State Daily.
Thankfully there was cell service — which is no guarantee in some parts of Wyoming — so the family was able to call emergency services.
They didn’t know where they were exactly, so the sheriff’s office assembled its search-and-rescue team and headed out in the sub-zero weather.
By the time they found the family, the SUV was covered in a foot of snow more than 90 miles from Rock Springs.
The rescue vehicles picked up six more people stranded along the way and didn’t get back into Rock Springs until past midnight.
“They were all either new to the area or from out of state and were mistakenly diverted by their vehicle navigation system to the same road,” Mower said.
Thankfully, the sheriff’s office has an experienced search-and-rescue team that was able to go out and save the stranded motorists in whiteout conditions and sub-zero temperatures.
But what if it keeps happening?
Can’t Someone Fix It?
The Wyoming Department of Transportation said its geographic information system unit is in talks with Google and other navigation companies to remedy the issue.
“All the companies WYDOT’s GIS program has worked with so far are willing to work with us to fix the issue, and the teamwork is much appreciated,” WYDOT spokesperson Jordan Achs told Cowboy State Daily.
Mower was more specific. He said his conversations with WYDOT revealed that the agency is “finalizing negotiations with major navigation providers to feed their official mapping data into those vehicle GPS navigation systems.”
Neither WYDOT nor Mower could provide dates where an electronic partnership could happen, but Mower said there are ways, which were realized last month, that they can be proactive in warning motorists.
Mower said the sheriff’s office issued a transit alert on its own social media accounts.
He said he acknowledges that most out-of-state drivers wouldn’t be following those accounts, but it was a good first step.
The next step was more important. Working with WYDOT, they were able to create and issue customized messages on the agency’s electronic bulletin boards along interstates.
All with the same message: Don’t believe your GPS.
Two, Three, Four More Months Of Winter
Since Dec. 13, there hasn’t been a repeat performance. There have been isolated incidents, but nothing of that magnitude.
Although the calendar says there are only two more months of winter ahead, any Wyomingite knows better. There’s at least three more months, which could extend into four more months.
Until then, Achs says it’s best to pay attention to WYDOT’s road and travel page, app and social media accounts.
And if a navigation app takes a driver to a county or service road, don’t go, she said. Instead, call the county or WYDOT to get up-to-date road information.
And it’s always good to use common sense, Mower said.
“If the conditions are bad like a whiteout and Siri or Alexa is advising you go on a dirt road, you should probably think twice about it,” he said.
“They didn’t know where they were exactly, so the sheriff’s office assembled its search-and-rescue team and headed out in the sub-zero weather.”
With Google maps you can send a text with your exact location.
Some sent over cliff?
“Thankfully there was cell service — which is no guarantee in some parts of Wyoming — so the family was able to call emergency services.
They didn’t know where they were exactly, so the sheriff’s office assembled its search-and-rescue team and headed out in the sub-zero weather.”
Dozens of apps to give lat/long coordinates.
Waze.
;^)
Dozens of vehicles are left in ‘muddy mess of a field’ after Google Maps offered drivers a ‘shortcut’ to Denver airport..
I tell my daughters - “Don’t blindly trust your GPS - check the route, look at at Google Maps (or a paper map) and make sure it makes sense.” Do they listen? Pfffft.
I still do directions on Google Maps or Mapquest before I go and I carry a map book in the car. That way I can sanity check the GPS (or, usually, not use the GPS until I get to where I’m going and use it to find my actual destination).
Passengers rescued after Greyhound bus gets stuck on forest service road.. Greyhound says it is investigating the “rerouting” that sent its bus up a wilderness road that is accessible only by 4-wheel drives and ATVs...
22.5 miles up Coffee Pot Springs Road, an unpaved high-mountain road accessible north of Dotsero, Colorado .. There were 21 people on board including at least one female with heart conditions
https://coloradosun.com/2021/08/08/greyhound-bus-stuck-forest-service-road-glenwood-canyon/
Stupid bus driver. Last November I had to reroute around a closure on the I-5 Grapevine using my nav system. I stayed off the tempting shortcuts and stayed on major roads.
I’m stuck in the past. I use an old Garmin GPS to get me to distant destinations. And Garmin does the same thing. It sends me along dirt roads, through cow pastures, etc. It’s quite the adventure.
I think I’ve got it programmed wrong. So I’ll break tradition. and actually read the manual. No, strike that. Instead I’ll just stop going to distant destinations.
Nav system maps use the same data used to generate paper maps.
Google Maps were sending 18 wheeler trucks up jeep roads... tried going up the Fryingpan Valley and into Eagle via the Frying Pan Road outside of Basalt, Colorado and connecting with the Eagle-Thomasville 4X4 Road.
Monroe Dodd, who lives in Meredith, said they were driving down the valley and the traffic on Frying Pan Road was building up ... people up that high were probably reading something off their Google maps or something that says try the Hagerman Pass.
That mushy thing under your skull, it’s called a brain. Use it.
As I understand it Waze is using Google map technology. But I’ve used Waze and Google maps in similar circumstances.
You should only use Google maps to research your trip and destinations. But never rely on it for driving purposes. Use Waze.
For the last several years, my wife and I have been making a 60 mile round trip commute nearly every day. We always use Google Maps so that we know what the traffic is going to be like ahead of us.
There were several times when Google Maps erroneously reported that I-5 was closed and tried to send us on side streets. There was road work going on and occasionally there was a lane or two shutdown but the freeway was never actually closed. The error persisted one time for nearly a month.
I commented to my wife that this could probably cause a lot of confusion especially for people who were from out of the area and possibly waste a lot of people’s time.
Driver follows GPS off disused bridge, and wife dies .. Sheriffs in Indiana say that a man was following his GPS too slavishly and drove his car onto a ramp leading to a demolished bridge.
The Cline Bridge in Indiana has been closed since 2009..The car then plunged 37 feet off the now-demolished bridge... This bridge has seen tragedy before. In 1989, a section of the bridge collapsed during construction work, and 12 workers were killed.
https://www.cnet.com/culture/man-followed-gps-drove-off-disused-bridge-ramp-wife-dies-police-say/
If you want directions as to where I live, Google maps will take you on the “shortest route”. A route that might save you a minute, but takes you through some narrow back roads and some neighborhood streets. Instead of a much better highway.
I’ve always told people, for years. Do not use Google maps to get to my address.
Google might send tourists driving an interstate off an exit ramp into a high crime area - like driving from Baltimore to DC.
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