Three Men Die After Google Maps Reportedly Told Them to Drive Over an Unfinished Bridge

Three men successful India precocious plummeted to their deaths aft the taxi they were traveling successful was instructed to thrust crossed an unfinished span by Google Maps, a section paper has reported.

The Economic Times writes that the men, who were traveling from 1 metropolis to different en way to a wedding were driving astatine nighttime and, thus, were “unaware of the bridge’s condition.” The clang country was discovered by locals astir a time aft the car plunged implicit the bridge’s borderline erstwhile the conveyance was spotted lying nether the unfinished structure.

A section authoritative told journalists that the car had been navigating with Google Maps astatine the clip of the crash, portion a household subordinate of 1 of the victims likewise blamed the U.S. company’s web app for the deadly incident: “They were checking the way utilizing Google Maps and fell from the incomplete bridge,” the household subordinate said. “The roadworthy should person been blocked, but it wasn’t. The maps shouldn’t person shown that the span was complete.”

This wouldn’t beryllium the archetypal clip that the tech giant’s web mapping level has told a idiosyncratic to thrust to a determination that ended up sidesplitting them. Typically, these incidents ever look to hap astatine night, erstwhile the Maps idiosyncratic can’t spot what’s happening astir them precise well, and simply has to spot the app to springiness them due instructions. Last year, the institution was sued by the household of a North Carolina antheral who died successful 2022 aft Google Maps reportedly told him to thrust crossed a span that had collapsed years earlier. An lawyer for the man’s household claimed that Google had “misdirected motorists” onto the collapsed roadway “for years.”

Other, little lethal incidents person besides inspired lawsuits against the representation app. In 2010, a California pistillate sued the hunt giant, claiming that, aft trying to look up a speedy walking way to a adjacent house, Maps instructed her to locomotion crossed a four-lane road with nary sidewalks. As a result, the pistillate was struck by a car. Again, the pistillate was traveling astatine nighttime and said she believed that Google was directing her safely to a sidewalk.

Gizmodo reached retired to Google for remark connected the caller fatal incident. In a connection provided to Futurism, the institution wrote: “Our deepest sympathies spell retired to the families.” The Google spokesperson added: “We’re moving intimately with the authorities and providing our enactment to analyse the issue.”