This week Australian police have issued a warning to drivers using Apple’s less-than-stellar iPhone mapping software after a number of motorists became stuck in a barren, snake-infested, desert corner of the country while using their iPhones or iPods for route directions.
Police in Victoria state said they had rescued a number of motorists who had become stuck for up to 24 hours “without food or water” after the app had directed them to the middle of the arid Murray-Sunset National Park, instead of the tourist town of Mildura, 70 km away.
“We had a guy trapped there on Friday night after his car became trapped in loose sand. He saw several snakes & was too scared to get out of the car,” Police Inspector Simon Clemence said.
The Murray-Sunset National Park is in Victoria’s far northwest, a sparsely inhabited semi-arid area, usually accessible only by 4-wheel-drive vehicle.
The Inspector said that more the half-a-dozen vehicles had become stuck on the park’s loose-sand trails after being directed by the iOS mapping app to turn-off a lengthy & poorly sign-posted stretch of highway.
“So far these people have still been rescuable. But we’ve just had a day with temperatures at 46C. If they were out there in that temperature & out of phone range, they would have been in serious trouble,” he said.
Clemence said police had contacted Apple over the issue. But while the company had now corrected the route to Mildura’s for people driving from South Australia, motorists seeking directions from Melbourne were still being directed into the middle of the Park.
ThursdayAgain 
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