Google Maps with fatal recommendation: Android app “played” with the life of its users

• The Google Maps app has provided route recommendations for closed and snow-covered roads in the USA.
• A ride on it could have been fatal.
• You should always critically question recommendations in extreme weather situations.

If you want to get from A to B, use Google Maps. The navigation app is pre-installed on Android cell phones worldwide and usually reacts quickly to unforeseeable events such as storms or traffic jams and adapts the recommended routes accordingly. Not in this case.

As the US online magazine PhoneArena reports, record-breaking snowfall over the past few days has meant that the roads leading to and from the holiday resort of Lake Tahoe in California have either been closed or are largely impassable. However, this did not prevent Google Maps from making appropriate route suggestions. According to a Twitter user, the route planner recommended driving on an unpaved and snow-covered forest road.

According to the user, a possible snowstorm could have ended fatally for the vehicle occupants. Perfidious: Another Twitter user reported that the web version of Google Maps displayed the road closures correctly, only the Android app “played” with the lives of its users.

So if you want to be sure that you are not putting yourself in danger, you should check a route displayed by Google Maps in your browser again in extreme weather situations and find out about possible road closures on the websites of local authorities.

It’s not the first time travelers have put themselves at risk by being recommended by Google Maps. In December 2020, for example, the route planner sent two Russian teenagers on an alleged shortcut that turned out to be a death trap.

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