Apple Maps flaw results in drivers crossing airport runway

[klr]

"Ooops ..."

An Alaskan airport has closed an aircraft access route because of a flaw with Apple's Maps app.

Fairbanks International Airport told a local newspaper that in the past three weeks two motorists had driven along the taxiway and across one of its runways.

Apple's app directs users along the taxiway but does not specifically tell them to drive on to the runway.

A spokesman for Apple was unable to provide comment.

The airport said it had complained to the phone-maker through the local attorney general's office.

"We asked them to disable the map for Fairbanks until they could correct it, thinking it would be better to have nothing show up than to take the chance that one more person would do this," Melissa Osborn, chief of operations at the airport, told the Alaska Dispatch newspaper.

She added that barricades had since been erected to block access to the final stretch of the taxiway and that they would not be removed until Apple had updated its directions.

The airport said it had been told the problem would be fixed by Wednesday.

However the BBC still experienced the issue when it tested the app, asking for directions to the site from a property to the east of the airport.

By contrast the Google Maps app provided a different, longer route which takes drivers to the property's car park.

...

Continued: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24246646

[Bella Fortuna]

Oh man... WHOOPS!

[Warren Dew]

Last week Google maps told me to park by the side of an expressway and rappel up to the restaurant I was getting directions for.

Evidently this mapping thing is harder than the tech giants realize.

[JimC]

As much as I like my Apple computers, the map thing has also happened in Oz, with AppleMaps giving directions to get to Mildura (a reasonably large inland city) which had them driving deeper and deeper into a desert, with potentially dangerous results if they got bogged in sand and stranded...

Paper maps for me...

[klr]

As much as I like my Apple computers, the map thing has also happened in Oz, with AppleMaps giving directions to get to Mildura (a reasonably large inland city) which had them driving deeper and deeper into a desert, with potentially dangerous results if they got bogged in sand and stranded...

Paper maps for me...

Indeed. You never know when Rolf Harris might suddenly appear from behind the bushes ...

[JimC]

As much as I like my Apple computers, the map thing has also happened in Oz, with AppleMaps giving directions to get to Mildura (a reasonably large inland city) which had them driving deeper and deeper into a desert, with potentially dangerous results if they got bogged in sand and stranded...

Paper maps for me...

Indeed. You never know when Rolf Harris might suddenly appear from behind the bushes ...

[Clinton Huxley]

All mapping software is prone to rubbishness. My in-car sat-nav gets completely confused by St. Albans.

[JimC]

When I have to go somewhere in Melbourne I haven't gone to before, I study the street directory, and memorise my route in advance. It's not hard if you concentrate...

[Clinton Huxley]

When I have to go somewhere in Melbourne I haven't gone to before, I study the street directory, and memorise my route in advance. It's not hard if you concentrate...

Skills that are going the way of weasel wrestling, old chap.

[mistermack]

I never rely on the sat-nav. I use google maps every time.
But it's lazy to just put the destination in, and expect a perfect route.
I always drag the route to what makes sense on the map. Quite often, you can shorten the route, make it more interesting, and avoid problems in the final half-mile, just by looking at the map. If you don't look, your're asking for trouble.

Google maps is so much better, with the facility to drag points on the route. If my sat-nav had that, I'd use it more.

[Warren Dew]

All mapping software is prone to rubbishness. My in-car sat-nav gets completely confused by St. Albans.

I have to say my wife's car's navigation doesn't make the mistakes Google maps does. Honda did a pretty good job.

[Tero]

Hey, it's just free enterprise at work. You can't have gubment telling people where to drive.

But I installed Google Maps, it's free for iPhones. Why don't Google just buy Apple?

[klr]

Hey, it's just free enterprise at work. You can't have gubment telling people where to drive.

But I installed Google Maps, it's free for iPhones. Why don't Google just buy Apple?

"A marriage made in hell ..."

[Clinton Huxley]

they could call the company Gaggle.

[klr]

they could call the company Gaggle.

They could, but it's already spoken for:

https://www.gaggle.net/

Let Google Apple Gaggle whoever be your friend.