Apple Maps Flaw Sends Drivers Across Airport Runway 311
solareagle writes "The BBC reports that an Alaskan airport says it has had to place barricades across one of its taxiways after an Apple Maps flaw resulted in iPhone users driving across a runway. The airport said it had complained to the phone-maker through the local attorney general's office. 'We asked them to disable the map for Fairbanks until they could correct it, thinking it would be better to have nothing show up than to take the chance that one more person would do this,' Melissa Osborn, chief of operations at the airport, told the Alaska Dispatch newspaper. The airport said it had been told the problem would be fixed by Wednesday. However the BBC still experienced the issue when it tested the app, asking for directions to the site from a property to the east of the airport. By contrast the Google Maps app provided a different, longer route which takes drivers to the property's car park."
Credulousness (Score:4, Insightful)
Now we see why big corporations retain batteries of lawyers to write voluminous "I Agree" waivers.
The real question is (Score:5, Insightful)
How did the driver get it onto the airport taxiways? I live pretty close to an airport and the taxiways are all very barricaded, you can't just drive onto an airport without someone noticing.
Re:The real question is (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The real question is (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Credulousness (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Steve jobs says: (Score:3, Insightful)
Also, what kind of moron actually drives through an airport just because their eyePhone tells them to?
The kind who thinks this sort of thing could never ever ever happen with an autonomous car.
Re:The real question is (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Bureaucracy (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:calendar check. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:calendar check. (Score:4, Insightful)
Even then though, did the BBC check before 0:00:01 cupertino time?
May still have been Tuesday...
lemmings (Score:1, Insightful)
Re: calendar check. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: calendar check. (Score:5, Insightful)
Airport's fault. No one should be able to drive their car right onto the runway, no matter what GPS or voice in their heads is telling them. Fire whoever runs this airport because they're a moron for not putting a fence up
I think it's pretty reasonable to think that a MILE of warning signs that you might get hit by a freaking plane is enough deterant.
And before you keep going on about physical security, remember that stupid is always going to find a way.
From TFA:
"They had to enter the airport property via a motion-activated gate, and afterwards there are many signs, lights and painted markings, first warning that aircraft may share the road and then that drivers should not be there at all.
"They needed to drive over a mile with all this before reaching the runway. But the drivers disregarded all that because they were following the directions given on their iPhones."
These aren't drunk frat boys pulling some shenaigans in the middle of the night. These are fully competent, licensed drivers who turned off their own brains and replaced them with iPhones. This is NOT the airport's fault. It's called personal responsibility.
Re: calendar check. (Score:5, Insightful)
Right. So the TSA are x-raying and groping passengers, meanwhile the gates are open for anyone who wants to go joy-riding on the runway. Seems inconsistent.
Re:Google maps error too (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: calendar check. (Score:3, Insightful)
These are fully competent, licensed drivers who turned off their own brains and replaced them with iPhones. This is NOT the airport's fault. It's called personal responsibility.
No, it's called "loyal Apple users".
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: calendar check. (Score:4, Insightful)
Its primarily the users fault for trusting the GPS implicitly and ignoring the signs and the fact they were driving onto a bloody runway. This says a lot about Apple users.
No. It says nothing about Apple users at all. It says the two people who drove across a runway are idiots. You don't know that there weren't many, many other Apple users who said "the instructions take me across a runway, so I'll ignore them". You also don't know how many Google/TomTom/Garmin etc users would have done the same thing if presented with erroneous instructions.