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Google Maps Lawsuit: Woman Follows Directions, Gets Run Over
- epochwolf 16y agoIt's a bloody shame she didn't end up as a Darwin Award contestant. On street view there is a walking path 20 feet from the road. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/361483/screenshots/streetview_29994.png http://dl.dropbox.com/u/361483/screenshots/streetview_29994.... Upvoted just for the irony.
- sh1mmer 16y agoThen her relatives would have sued anyway.
- davidmurphy 16y agoReally?> You're saying it's a shame she didn't die? Come on, that's going too far.
- benatkin 16y agoBesides, she could still get an honorable mention: > Northcutt's Darwin Awards site gives "Honorable Mentions" to people who survive their misadventures with their reproductive capacity intact, by luck or chance. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_Awards#Examples http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_Awards#Examples (Except her injury was unremarkable, even with the pedestrian walkway nearby.)
- janj 16y agoIs it really going too far? With over-population being the root of most of our biggest problems, I'm starting to think things in general could be much better if we had many more people dying, why not start with the stupid?
- pigbucket 16y agoFor one, there'd be a serious danger of getting caught in a self-referential paradox
- philk 16y agoWhen someone does something incredibly stupid and then has the temerity to sue others for their stupidity it's really hard to wish them anything but ill luck.
- benatkin 16y agoThe article doesn't say when it happened, AFAICT. I also don't know how well they take care of the path. Might the path have been covered in snow?
- decadentcactus 16y agoFollowing the article to searchengineland says she used it January 19, 2009. So winter, as well as the off chance the path didn't exist. Unfortunately common sense didn't work for her either.
- mburney 16y agoI don't think she should win this lawsuit but it does make me think google could add a new feature describing the safety level of a route.
- epochwolf 16y agoThere is no safety issue here, it's a stupidity issue. She could have used the walkway I commented about instead she decided to walk on what is obviously a highway.
- melling 16y agoWhat's the most fair and effective way to stop these types of law suits? Perhaps these can be filtered through some other group of judges to determine if they have merit? Even lawyers realize the system is broken. http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/philip_howard.html http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/philip_howard.html
- smokinn 16y agoIn Canada there's a preliminary hearing of some sort (not sure about the specifics) to see if the case is even justified in being tried. The vast majority of stories like these are all thrown out.
- anamax 16y agoThere's a similar procedure in the US. Google used it to get Brian Reid's age-discrimination case thrown out. He appealed that decision and won so now he gets to go to trial.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- 27182818284 16y agoAt first I thought and typed, "Yeah, exactly. They could add a safety warning about the health effects of eating the phone or laptop you look at Google Maps on too, but we don't because there is an assumed level of intelligence. I hope that she doesn't just lose, but is also penalized for creating a frivolous suit." But then I reread the parent's post and now I think what they meant is that a nice feature would be one that displayed a route's level of safety. For example, if the route makes you cross a busy highway it might get a red label while a route that crosses no roads would get a green label.
- noonespecial 16y agoIma be rich! Where my kayak at? http://geographicjourney.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/google-goes-to-hawaii-via-kayak/ http://geographicjourney.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/google-goe...
- sliverstorm 16y agoI hate that our nation seems to be developing the following motto- Your Own Safety: Not Your Responsibility
- epochwolf 16y agoIt's not a very nice thing to admit but I wished more people died because of their own stupidity. (And part of me wonders if that would actually be a net benefit or loss)
- robryan 16y agoIt will be interesting how we evolve given that not many people die of their own stupidity before reproducing in modern society.
- philk 16y agoAlso bear in mind that amongst other things we select for people who can't understand how contraception works and things look even shakier.
- loewenskind 16y agoYou're making the assumption that "stupidity" comes from our DNA. Do you have any evidence that even remotely suggests this? Everything I see makes me think "stupid" is a learned behavior (e.g. stupid parents with brilliant kids, brilliant parents with stupid kids, etc.). I'm a little suprised on this site, of all sites, to see people subscribing to the idea that we are constrained by the intelligence of our parents. EDIT: Spelling
- robryan 16y agoNo stupidity as such but in general lots of traits which would have been bred out in the past will persist because many undesirable traits can be managed. I was more thinking about brain function and learning capability, not a direct stupidity from DNA.
- aohtsab 16y agoMaybe this woman followed the directions exactly so that she could pursue a frivolous suit against Google. Mostly, I don't want to believe that someone could look at the situation and not see reality.
- eli 16y agoMeh. Anybody can sue anyone for any reason.
- statenjason 16y agoThe next lawsuit will be taking Google's directions to Japan. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=San+Diego,+CA&daddr=Tokyo,+Japan&hl=en&geocode=&mra=ls&sll=51.497523,-0.149002&sspn=0.050441,0.132093&ie=UTF8&z=4 http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=San...
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- darius 16y agoHaHaHa. I think this is quite funny: "Kayak across the Pacific Ocean." I wonder if this is humor from google...
- ErrantX 16y agoProduct of our compensation culture. Honestly, I think this is one of the growing problem areas for innovation - we are all too scared of being sued now. It's going to cripple us as a society at some point.
- benatkin 16y agoEh...walking on a highway isn't a guarantee of getting run over. Nor is cycling. I biked from University of Utah to Park City once, and rode on the freeway for a few miles, because there wasn't any other way to get there without going at least 5 extra miles. It wasn't as scary as walking across the street at a four-way stop sometimes has been, when inattentive drivers are involved. I was on the shoulder of the road, but I have ridden on highways (not freeways) without a shoulder, on a road bike, before. When I did, I often picked my bike up and stood on the dirt beside the road and waited for a wave of vehicles to pass. I've employed similar tactics while walking along highways. She may not have. I don't think walking where she walked was necessarily stupid. I think she may have just been unlucky. Or maybe she wasn't far enough on the shoulder of the highway. I also think the lawsuit is frivolous, because it hinges on the idea that she did something really stupid with Google's help.
- philk 16y agoOn the plus side Lauren Rosenberg's name is out there on the internet marking her as the person stupid enough to walk down a very busy highway and then sue others when she gets hit by a car. This will doubtless come back to haunt her in the future.
- Sheakk 16y agoWell ... she is from the USA !
- stretchwithme 16y agoif a human being looking at the road cannot tell that a situation is dangerous, how can a computer be expected to do it? people need to understand that they're dealing with dumb mapping engines, not some all-seeing oracle. if a situation is dangerous, you need to go back the way you came and get better information. if you plunge forward anyway, you do it at your own risk, just as you would be if you got directions from a human. if your mama didn't teach you to walk on the left side of the road facing the traffic and to look both ways before you cross, it ain't google's fault.
- moolave 16y agoSee, there's technological prowess, and there's common sense. We haven't reached that stage where we can totally rely on machines to guide our every move. We'd be robots by then.
- KevBurnsJr 16y ago"Man sues Church of Scientology shortly after death."
- spectre 16y agoMaybe I should sue Land Info NZ, I fell off a cliff that wasn't marked on their map. Wait that was my fault.