I grew up in regional NSW in Australia, and Google would repeatedly offer a route to Sydney through weird choices of mountain roads. If I did not know better, I might have taken those roads simply because I knew no other way to get to Sydney. I never took those roads, but I know people who did, and fortunately they were only out a couple of extra hours on a long trip.
Sydney is very well known and signposted city, but for Mildura, a town of just over 30000 people in regional Victoria, the fact that it is not as well known and is more remote lends credibility to the idea that unknowing people who have come to rely on technology (and understandably so, technology is great!) might be misled by rogue data.
- sidenote - We constantly rely on technology, and come to depend on it. This is a good thing. Only when technology is unreliable do we need to carry 'backups'. It would be weird to carry a pencil around just in case your pen broke (edit: in most situations, that is; going into space is not a normal situation, so it would not be weird to carry a pencil in addition to a pen there). Digital maps are not yet at their pinnacle of development, nor are they completely reliable, however that is no reason not to use them exclusively if they prove reliable enough for the job at hand.
The town was itself was placed in the wrong place. These people could easily have thought they were going in the right direction, and if they had concerns about the roads they were taking what choices would they have?
They could have studied the map. Maybe this is a 'scenic route' and there were better roads to take that the app just missed? If they looked at the map they might have been able to figure out a better way to go. In any case, the data was wrong, so they still wouldn't get to the correct location! If they were very clever, they might note the confluence of highways where the town actually lies, and navigate themselves there.
They might have asked someone for directions, but this was next to impossible where they were, especially as there was no mobile reception.
Perhaps they took a wrong turn, so they might decide to turn around and go back. Go back where? Surely if they just keep going the way the map says they will get to the right place? The only evidence against going the way that they were was that it was through a national park, and even that is not unheard of. In fact, there are a number of highways that go through national parks.
The very fact that (at least) 5 separate groups have been waylaid speaks to the importance of this issue.
Sydney is very well known and signposted city, but for Mildura, a town of just over 30000 people in regional Victoria, the fact that it is not as well known and is more remote lends credibility to the idea that unknowing people who have come to rely on technology (and understandably so, technology is great!) might be misled by rogue data.
- sidenote - We constantly rely on technology, and come to depend on it. This is a good thing. Only when technology is unreliable do we need to carry 'backups'. It would be weird to carry a pencil around just in case your pen broke (edit: in most situations, that is; going into space is not a normal situation, so it would not be weird to carry a pencil in addition to a pen there). Digital maps are not yet at their pinnacle of development, nor are they completely reliable, however that is no reason not to use them exclusively if they prove reliable enough for the job at hand.
The town was itself was placed in the wrong place. These people could easily have thought they were going in the right direction, and if they had concerns about the roads they were taking what choices would they have?
They could have studied the map. Maybe this is a 'scenic route' and there were better roads to take that the app just missed? If they looked at the map they might have been able to figure out a better way to go. In any case, the data was wrong, so they still wouldn't get to the correct location! If they were very clever, they might note the confluence of highways where the town actually lies, and navigate themselves there.
They might have asked someone for directions, but this was next to impossible where they were, especially as there was no mobile reception.
Perhaps they took a wrong turn, so they might decide to turn around and go back. Go back where? Surely if they just keep going the way the map says they will get to the right place? The only evidence against going the way that they were was that it was through a national park, and even that is not unheard of. In fact, there are a number of highways that go through national parks.
The very fact that (at least) 5 separate groups have been waylaid speaks to the importance of this issue.