AfterDawn: Tech news

Apple Maps directs drivers across runway

Written by James Delahunty @ 26 Sep 2013 2:00 User comments (4)

Apple Maps directs drivers across runway An airport in Alaska gas to close an aircraft access route and erect barricades because Apple's Maps app directed drivers across an actively used runway.
Fairbanks International Airport witnessed two incidents where drivers had driven along a taxiway and across a runway. It turns out the Apple Maps app on their devices had indicated that was a correct route to take.

Through the attorney general's office, the airport contacted Apple about the problem a couple of weeks ago, asking that they disable the service in the area.

"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 Alaska Dispatch.

Apple has since changed their system to provide a message of "not available" rather than display the earlier route.



This is not the first time that the Maps app has been criticized on safety grounds. Australian police branded it "life threatening" after motorists were stranded in a national park after getting the wrong directions to Mildura, Victoria.

Tags: Apple
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4 user comments

126.9.2013 13:13

How do you accidentally drive onto a runway?

226.9.2013 16:15

because people trust their gps devices & map apps.

327.9.2013 19:17

Q, how do you drive onto a run way
A, put to much faith in the ishiney and fruit flavoured instructions.

Seriously, maybe they were holding it wrong.

428.9.2013 18:41

The better question is how can it be that easy to drive your car onto a runway?

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