Apple Maps Problem - Dangerous?

DylanII

Hi,

I used my iphone for a trip today. But there was a major problem. It to me to go down a dangerous path.

The satnav told me to go down a small 'one car only' unpaved country road. Which I thought was a bit odd but I just drove slow. The road then turned muddy and very bumpy suddenly. I drove in and my car started being hit by stuff underneath. I started getting stuck, my car was spinning and get caught in things. There was no way in hell that I could turn around or stop as I would never have gotten out, a tow truck would not fit down that road. I had to keep driving, where I was hitting sudden drops into mud or water. The mud got very deep, I had to drive on a hill sideways on the verge through bushes.

It doesnt sound THAT bad but it really was, I didnt think I was getting out. My car was damaged from it, my bumper in dented and Im pretty sure there is paint missing from the left hand side and my rear bumper is loose.

Not looking for anything from ye all. Just thought Id share it with you. If your going in the Kells/Athboy area, be careful if your phone leads you down a dirt road :rolleyes:

Wils110

Your phone suggested it,didn't lead you

mel123

its a sat nav, it doesnt actually know if there is mud or stones on the ground. maybe you should be complaining about the local council authority and what we pay road tax for.

biko

Unfortunately Apple maps won't know that Irish back roads are ****.
I use Waze which allows me to disable dirt roads and stick to main roads as much as possible. Waze has its own issues but work just fine 95% of the time.

Jimdagym

mel123 wrote: »

its a sat nav, it doesnt actually know if there is mud or stones on the ground. maybe you should be complaining about the local council authority and what we pay road tax for.

Motor tax is nothing to do with the upkeep of the roads.

pfurey101

Phew! Its just as well it didn't tell you to go over a bridge thats not there!

Or even this

Creamy Goodness

ah heyor!

al28283

If it told you to drive off a cliff would ou do it?

hoodwinked

with all due respect you really should be using common sense rather than apple maps, a map is an aid not a direct instruction.

reminds me of these people who will drive the wrong way down a one way street because their sat nav told them so, or the ones you see suddenly darting across lanes to an exit as the sat nav on the phone suddenly gets 3g signal and tells them turn.

use your windscreen not your maps from now on.

gbee

DylanII wrote: »

Hi, The satnav told me to go down a small 'one car only' unpaved country road.

I love those myself, I've a jeep so there would be a difference. I have not tried Apple too much yet, but my regular Sat Nav will offer unpaved roads, once I select the right setting.

matchthis

But if a sat nav gives you directions, why would you randomly decide not to follow it. Apart from the obvious. The road itself and conditions seems to be the issue rather than the map

gbee

matchthis wrote: »

But if a sat nav gives you directions, why would you randomly decide not to follow it. Apart from the obvious. The road itself and conditions seems to be the issue rather than the map

Do you use a satnav?

bryaner

Maybe try reversing?

Dicky Pride

I love how there are so many perfect people on boards. Such a great resource!

gbee

Dicky Pride wrote: »

I love how there are so many perfect people on boards. Such a great resource!

You're doing great there yerself, mate. Ace!!!

BostonB

matchthis wrote: »

But if a sat nav gives you directions, why would you randomly decide not to follow it....

Because they are wrong a lot.

http://forums.gpsreview.net/viewtopic.php?t=21646

squonk

The current iteration of Apple Maps is ****e and is dangerous enough to rely on, certainly in case of an emergency.

You do know that if you pssed out the road in question that the map would have rerouted you via another set of roads? It's like any satNav, they are an aid but you primarily need to use your own common sense and judgement as well.

DylanII

The road seemed normal enough at first. It was a small windy road, but nothing I hadnt driven on before.

There was no lighting which meant that reversing wasnt an option. The road looked fine until I was gone way to far to turn around, then it gradually became worse. I had no choice but to continue, if I had of stopped the car it never would have gotten going again, and a tow truck would never make it down that road.

I have since looked for the road, and its not on any maps.

Deep Thought

DylanII wrote: »

The road seemed normal enough at first. It was a small windy road, but nothing I hadnt driven on before.

There was no lighting which meant that reversing wasnt an option. The road looked fine until I was gone way to far to turn around, then it gradually became worse. I had no choice but to continue, if I had of stopped the car it never would have gotten going again, and a tow truck would never make it down that road.

I have since looked for the road, and its not on any maps.

mmmm...sounds like The Twilight Zone

BostonB

DylanII wrote: »

The road seemed normal enough at first. It was a small windy road, but nothing I hadnt driven on before.

There was no lighting which meant that reversing wasnt an option. ...

Does your car not have a working reversing light?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automotive_lighting#Reversing_lamps

Armonline

To be fair to Dylan11, the same thing also happened to me twice before using Google Maps.
Both times in different parts of the country off the beaten track, the Maps sent me along the shortest route but ended up on roads that turned into single lane dirt tracks suitable only for tractors and made it very hard to turn around and risked getting stuck. One time i ended up on a Farmers private property in Kilkenny who said that he often got people following SatNavs turning up on his Farm by mistake.
I don't think it is unique to Apple Maps but probably affects all GPS systems to different degrees.

BostonB

How can you confuse a single lane dirt track. With a road

gbee

BostonB wrote: »

How can you confuse a single lane dirt track. With a road

It can be confusing TBH, now I actually go looking for these for the sport, even so, some are almost too much for me, and occasionaly, especially when I don't know where I am going, and I've forgot to change my SatNav settings on will follow the big green or orange route indicator.

Many of these roads are project roads that were never completed, and as the OP said, it looked fine for a while. So it is often too late to do anything except keep going.

My SatNav will offer unpaved roads and the OP seemingly knew this as he says so and choose to go down it and it turned out to be more off road than he was expecting.

The road not being on any map is not unusual, it could also not get selected as a route if say lorry and fastest route were selected. The shortest route and car or bike will bring up a few unpaved roads, great for sport as I say.

BostonB

You kinda missing the point.

Don't go down roads beyond your ability to reverse on.

Tallon

Reminds me of the American lad who sued because he put his camper van on cruise control on the motorway, and went in the back to make a cuppa tea

As you can imagine, he crashed, and successfully sued because the manual never said you couldn't do it!

Common sense OP, use it.

DylanII

BostonB wrote: »

Does your car not have a working reversing light?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automotive_lighting#Reversing_lamps

I drive a ford focus. The reverse light doesnt actually light anything up, its more to show others that you are reversing.

It would be impossible to reverse in the dark, down windy, bumpy roads without any street lighting.

gbee wrote: »

It can be confusing TBH, now I actually go looking for these for the sport, even so, some are almost too much for me, and occasionaly, especially when I don't know where I am going, and I've forgot to change my SatNav settings on will follow the big green or orange route indicator.

Many of these roads are project roads that were never completed, and as the OP said, it looked fine for a while. So it is often too late to do anything except keep going.

My SatNav will offer unpaved roads and the OP seemingly knew this as he says so and choose to go down it and it turned out to be more off road than he was expecting.

The road not being on any map is not unusual, it could also not get selected as a route if say lorry and fastest route were selected. The shortest route and car or bike will bring up a few unpaved roads, great for sport as I say.

The issue with it is though that you cant change the type of route you want on the iphone. To be fair though I also had sygic maps and it brought me into drewstown house. I then switched to apple maps, which brought me out onto the R154 and right again onto the n52. Go to maps.google.ie and copy this into the search box 53.684841,-6.949757 thats where I entered. Then type in 53.679343,-6.925668. Thats where I came out. Big difference, the actual 'track' was much much worse though

BostonB

Its not fit for purpose then. Because the reversing light is meant to let you see enough behind to be able to reverse. Or do you think that all vehicles are unable to reverse in the country side at night? Bit of a limitation that no? Even in the city you end up in unlit places like car parks. driveways, where you need to be able to see no ones walking behind you when you reverse and you don't reverse into a wall.

If your light's aren't any good for reversing, its an even better reason not to go down single lane dirt tracks, at night when you don't know where you are, and know you're not able to reverse.

When the tarmac stopped. Isn't that a sign to stop?