California woman sues google maps for $100,000 US

[naisho]

Woman Sues Google for Bad Directions - PCWorld

One day I was using my cell phone's GPS service to find the nearest Target. I was driving down the road when suddenly my cell phone piped up, "Turn right here." I looked to the right. There was no road, just a tree and some grass. I chalked it up to a GPS glitch and turned right at the next corner.

If I had been Lauren Rosenberg, however, I would have turned right at that very moment, hit the tree, suffered some cuts and minor brain damage, and then turned around and sued Verizon for the glitch in its GPS service.

Seriously.

Rosenberg, a Los Angeles California native, is suing Google because Google Maps issued directions that told her to walk down a rural highway. She started walking down the highway--which had no sidewalk or pedestrian paths--and was struck by a car. She is suing Google for her medical expenses ($100,000), as well as punitive damages. She is also suing the driver who struck her, Patrick Harwood of Park City, Utah.

On January 19, 2010, Rosenberg was apparently trying to get from 96 Daly Street, Park City, Utah, to 1710 Prospector Avenue, Park City, Utah. She looked up the walking directions using Google Maps on her Blackberry. Google Maps suggested a route that included a half-mile walk down "Deer Valley Drive," which is also known as "Utah State Route 224."

There's not much more to say--she started walking down the middle of a highway, and a car hit her. Who wouldn't have seen that one coming?

According to Rosenberg's complaint filing:

"As a direct and proximate cause of Defendant Google’s careless, reckless and negligent providing of unsafe directions, Plaintiff Lauren Rosenberg was led onto a dangerous highway, and was thereby stricken by a motor vehicle, causing her to suffer sever permanent physical, emotional, and mental injuries, including pain and suffering."

Google actually does offer up a warning about its walking directions--if you view Google Maps on a computer, it gives you the following message: "Walking directions are in beta. Use caution--This route may be missing sidewalks or pedestrian paths."

This warning does not show up in PDA's and cell phones, however. I suppose Google figured that people who are smart enough to use Blackberries are probably also smart enough to not walk directly into the middle of traffic.

For the record, when I look up driving directions from my current city (San Francisco, California) to the city I grew up in (Tokyo, Japan), Google Maps suggests I kayak across the Pacific Ocean (with a rest stop in Hawaii, of course).

I can't wait until Ms. Rosenberg tries to travel overseas ("The plaintiff was unaware that attempting to kayak 5,100 miles is an unreasonable endeavor").

 

[Glenn]

What happened to personal responsibility?

 

[Bottesini]

I wonder if she will win?

 

[somedeafdudefromPNW]

My GoogleMaps on BlackBerry 8900 warned me that it's not perfect...

 

[TXgolfer]

My Google maps tried to sell me my horoscope

 

[PowerON]

She don't realize that Google Maps for walking is under beta and shouldn't follow on the display instead look at her own eyes on path.

Another foolish case...

 

[Rio]

Wirelessly posted

My Google maps tried to sell me my horoscope

good thing you didn't buy that one , who knows what direction it would take you, then again, we won't go there

 

[AndyE9503]

Hmmm... Maybe I should have drove off the cliff that my navigator told me to drive off of. 50/50 shot of living but man I could be rich

By the way the cliff is in my avatar

 

[whatdidyousay!]

My Google maps tried to sell me my horoscope

You can get your horoscope for free! I guess some people are foolish to buy it!

 

[Rickyrab]

Tort law in the USA is some of the dumbest tort law anywhere. Where else in the world can you get thousands of dollars for being an idiot? LOL

 

[Rickyrab]

Interestingly enough, Google Maps seems to know how to get across the Pacific Ocean but not the Atlantic. Why?

 

[naisho]

$$$
Because google knows China is the next big thing.

Who cares about the europeans! (joking of course)

 

[somedeafdudefromPNW]

Interestingly enough, Google Maps seems to know how to get across the Pacific Ocean but not the Atlantic. Why?

Crossing the Pacific is well-documented...

Crossing the Atlantic-- only ballsy men and the insane would dare take on a feat.

 

[Foxrac]

Crossing the Pacific is well-documented...

Crossing the Atlantic-- only ballsy men and the insane would dare take on a feat.

How do you can feed yourself while crossing the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii? I will probably die from starvation and it will take 1 month to arrive.

Does kayak can be ripped down if there is strong riptide or undertow?

 

[TXgolfer]

Crossing the Pacific is well-documented...

Crossing the Atlantic-- only ballsy men and the insane would dare take on a feat.

Hey I'm ballsy and you are insane.....We should try it.


BTW did you see 48 mystery this past Saturday???? Family wrecked their boat on a reef in the Pacific.

 

[naisho]

How do you can feed yourself while crossing the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii? I will probably die from starvation and it will take 1 month to arrive.

Does kayak can be ripped down if there is strong riptide or undertow?

I tried kayak before on freshwater, average speed is like 2mph for a newbie with no winds. If you got winds your direction or opposite, it will be a little faster or slower. Pro's can probably do ~8-10mph.

I just map distance from California to Japan, its 7,800 miles

So assume we're all kayak noobs, 2mph = 162 and a half days if we don't stop. = almost 6 months lol.

Can't store enough food unless got helicopter to drop rations.

 

[TXgolfer]

You could always fish.....

If a girl can do this......

Woman Completes Solo Row Across the Atlantic

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (March 15) -- A 22-year-old American rower completed a solo journey across the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday, touching a pier in the coffee-brown waters of Guyana to claim a record as the youngest person to accomplish the feat.

Katie Spotz, who spent more than two months alone at sea, hugged her father and brother as 200 people cheered her arrival in this South American capital.

"The hardest part was just the solo part," Spotz said, saying she struggled with boredom and had trouble sleeping inside the cramped, 19-foot row boat.
The athlete from Mentor, Ohio, set out from Dakar, Senegal, on Jan. 3 and endured rough seas during the 2,817-mile crossing. She traveled without any support boat aside from a Coast Guard vessel that escorted her to Guyana's coast.

She rowed to raise money and awareness for the Blue Planet Run Foundation, a nonprofit whose goal is to bring clean drinking water to the estimated 1 billion people worldwide who lack it.

"The records are just a bonus for Katie. Rowing the Atlantic and raising funds for clean water are the things she really cares about," said her coach Sam Williams.

The record for the youngest rower to cross an ocean solo was set Oliver Hicks, a British man who was 23 when he rowed from New Jersey to England in 2005, according to Kenneth Crutchlow, the London-based executive director of the Ocean Rowing Society. He said his group will have to certify Spotz's journey but she appears to have broken the record.

Spotz rowed for as many as 10 hours a day with breaks for naps, navigation and boat maintenance. At night, she would drift aboard the specially designed ocean row boat, which had equipment including solar panels for power, a satellite phone and a laptop computer.

"I would cook three dehydrated meals a day on a little stove," she said as she devoured a melon at the dock in Georgetown. "At night I would update my Facebook and e-mails. There is not much else to do on a row boat."

She had little fresh food aside from sprouts grown aboard the boat.

 

[purplecatty]

That lady need to add common sense in her brain.

I've use Google map often and when I drive and checked the direction on Google map. It showed wrong direction when I see correct street past by me. I made U turn and then enter correct street even Google map show it wrong. I don't always trust Google Map. It's my common sense. Sometime The Google map were wrong while there are street there or opening on the street. Sometime it was quirky.


Currently, my new Samsung Moment have Google Navigation. it was waaaay cool!! But it was kinda slow responding a bit when I made a turns.

So in fact are that we should be careful not to rely on technology too much. Technology are not perfect so just use common sense look at the Google map and actual street or highway. You'll be surprised that sometime it doesn't correspond to actual event.

Catty

 

[naisho]

How you doing Catty long time no see.

 

[somedeafdudefromPNW]

How do you can feed yourself while crossing the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii? I will probably die from starvation and it will take 1 month to arrive.

Does kayak can be ripped down if there is strong riptide or undertow?

Google it.

Hey I'm ballsy and you are insane.....We should try it.


BTW did you see 48 mystery this past Saturday???? Family wrecked their boat on a reef in the Pacific.

Hans Lindermann beat you to it in 1956. With tins and beer nonetheless. I don't have cable, but if I got the surname... I would have an idea of what you're talking about.

hans lindemann kayak - Google Search

I tried kayak before on freshwater, average speed is like 2mph for a newbie with no winds. If you got winds your direction or opposite, it will be a little faster or slower. Pro's can probably do ~8-10mph.

I just map distance from California to Japan, its 7,800 miles

So assume we're all kayak noobs, 2mph = 162 and a half days if we don't stop. = almost 6 months lol.

Can't store enough food unless got helicopter to drop rations.

3 knots an hour (with no wind or currents); assuming 6-8 hours a day. 3 litre of water a day... 2 pounds of food a day.

You're forgetting that the Pacific is dotted with tremendous amount of young inhabited islands. Although a newbie kayaker tried to do an open-ocean cross on the Pacific a few years ago with zero experience under his belt and drowned.

The Atlantic is totted around as more difficult because there's not as many stops along the way. And more unpredictable climate.