Los Angeles — Tools like Google Maps and other online products have generally made our lives easier. Using Maps to find a directions is a great way of getting about without paying for an expensive GPS device. And Google’s services are also not flawless too and considering the sheer amount of data they handle, it is understandable. A California woman is suing Google after she was hit by a car while following directions provided by Google Maps on her cell phone, according to AOL News.
“Turn right at the next junction and continue for 3 miles. Oh, and watch out for any oncoming traffic.”
Why depend on man-made gadgets when you can rely on your own eyes, your own brain and, your own basic instincts of survival? And, at the end of the day, any helpful service, device or tool is only as smart as the person using them allows it to be. Putting all of your faith in technology is, generally, not a great idea and, sometimes, a dangerous one as well.
This theoretical question comes to mind after going through the tragic tale of Lauren Rosenberg, who claims that her Google Maps BlackBerry program directed her to take Deer Valley Drive — a highway also called Utah State Route 224 — to walk from one Park City address to another.
Rosenberg, a Los Angeles California native, said she followed the direction and 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.
According to a comprehensive analysis presented by Search Engine Land, Lauren Rosenberg chose to take a walk in Park City, Utah, on January 19, 2009. “I will try and ignore just how critically un-American this act was in order to focus on some of the ensuing action.”
On January 19, 2010, Rosenberg fiddled with her trusted BlackBerry and asked it to tell her just how she might walk between 96 Daly Street, Park City, Utah, to 1710 Prospector Avenue, Park City, Utah. Her BlackBerry turned to the world’s great walking resource, Google Maps. Google Maps suggested that she should, as part of her journey, stroll along a route that included a half-mile walk down “Deer Valley Drive,” which is also known as “Utah State Route 224.”
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.”
An important question arises here is, does this warning also appear when you go to Google Maps on your BlackBerry? Or, even more importantly, on Rosenberg’s BlackBerry? It does not appear to appear on the iPhone. Which might suggest the same situation holds with the RIM phone.
Image comment: The section of road the woman was instructed to follow.
Can Rosenberg bank on Utah courts to be more compassionate? In our world of increasingly diminished responsibility, might someone actually be in a position to prove that we are all now subjects of the Googleplex? Those Googlies have filmed our streets, made records of our Wi-Fi data, followed us around the Web until they could offer us ads that are “good” for us.
Should we not confess who is truly dominating the power? Or might the judge emit a cough and declaim in the finest Latin: “Caveat walker”?