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Family sues Google after Maps allegedly directed father off collapsed bridge
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2023
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Doesn’t sound like google’s fault, does it?
The article even mentions that other entities are sued but oh that sweet headline.
The bridge was broken years though, so Google should not have been using it for routes. The country is definitely at fault for not having signs up, but Google isn’t blameless in this.
The company literally directed this man to his death. Why are all these commenters going to bat for a trillion dollar company that refused to pay a programmer for the ten seconds it would take to fix thee issue?
It is simply not the responsibility of google to prevent this tragedy. It is firstly the responsibility of every driver to make sure to be able to see where you are driving and be able to stop in time in case of unexpected. What if there was a person in his path and he could not stop in time for example?
And secondly it is the responsibility of the local authority/agency to put up signage and block the road.
Sure, i am not a fan of giant megacorps either, and it makes sense to be angry at google for not correcting the wrong map data. But strictly from a responsibility perspective, i don't think google should be held accountable here.
I also believe the thinking "directed this man to death" is too extreme. It simply is a map, with route information. There is no automatic driving or compulsion to follow its direction, the driver has to make safe decisions by himself imo.
Then that would be on him, because google did not receive multiple reports of a person in the middle of the road for ten goddamn years, and it's easier to spot a person in the middle of the road than it is to spot this