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TL;DR there is a road that goes through a really cold part of Russia (and we mean cold for even Russia). 2 young men were driving on it and their car got struck
by hpoe 6y ago
TL;DR there is a road that goes through a really cold part of Russia (and we mean cold for even Russia). 2 young men were driving on it and their car got struck by a tree branch so it stopped working. One froze to death before help arrived the other is in critical condition.
The article appears to be almost devoid of information about Google.
- jeffbee 6y agoIndeed, paper maps have killed people in the exact same way, like James Kim who drove up a forest road in Oregon, became snowbound, and died.
- ghaff 6y agoNot sure why you were downvoted. My recollection from the time was that GPS mapping wasn't involved and, in fact, the Wikipedia article says: "Mrs. Kim told state police that they had used a paper road map, an account supported by the Oregon State Police, which reported that the Kims had used an official State of Oregon highway map. Mrs. Kim later recounted that, after they had been stuck for four days and were studying the map for help, both she and Mr. Kim noticed that a box in the corner of the map bore the message: "Not all Roads Advisable, Check Weather Conditions"."
- ogre_codes 6y agoPaper maps don't recommend routes.
- ghaff 6y agoAAA Triptiks used to. (Maybe they're even still available.)
- notyourwork 6y agoThe difference is you had to map your own route from the paper map. Now Google is suggesting the "best" route so its easy to blame this corporate entity and not the person who chose to follow instructions.
- s0rce 6y agoAnd Jim and Jennifer Stolpa near Vya, NV (although they lived), subject of a 1994 TV movie.
- ed25519FUUU 6y agoThe road is in disuse. Russian Yandex recommended a much different route that was 3 hours longer, presumably because their developers knew something different about Russia than Google.
- bamboleo 6y agoIt’s the data, not the developers.
- ed25519FUUU 6y agoI can’t wait to use this excuse when my project fails in some spectacular way.
- bamboleo 6y agoSorry to hear that always happens to your projects. Maybe you should change career.
- kjs3 6y agoSays every bad developer ever.
- bamboleo 6y agoWow the stupidity of HN commenters. Do you really think that Yandex developers minutely picked the route between 2 points or PERHAPS the shorter road in question was marked as impassable by whoever punched its GPS coordinates in the database? Do you really think developers take care of the whole product from start to finish? I pity your coworkers.
- intellirogue 6y agoYes, lack of local knowledge in Google Maps is often problematic, and Google aren't receptive to local governments requesting changes. I lived near a gorge where there was a nice modern road alongside an old horse track that was only intended for use by the residents connected to it. It was technically two-way (as making it one way would annoy the residents who might want to go either up or down) but barely wide enough for one car. If you met another car halfway, you had to reverse until you got to a driveway you could go into and let the other car past. At some point Google Maps' algorithm changed and started suggesting that everyone use the old road. There were multiple crashes, and the local government begged Google to deprioritise it, but their answer was basically "our algorithm is always right". Five years on, Google Maps will still suggest it, so the local government added big signs at each end advising drivers to ignore Google Maps and to use the main road. Although they already weren't suggesting that route, the other map providers (Apple, Here, TomTom etc) contacted by the local government were happy to proactively add a flag to the road saying that it is for residents only - so it will only route using it if the source/destination is that road.