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Apple Maps Flaw Sends Drivers Across Airport Runway
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."
Now we see why big corporations retain batteries of lawyers to write voluminous "I Agree" waivers.
I deny that I have not avoided attaining the opposite of that which I do not want.
Well, you did ask for the fastest route.
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.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
They are using their roads incorrectly. Next time they should consult Apple before undertaking such projects so that the routes can be preapproved.
barricades had since been erected to block access to the final stretch of the taxiway and that they would not be removed until Apple had updated its directions.
Not clear why they weren't there before.
Great. So now, let me get this straight:
You park in a driveway.
You drive on a parkway.
You also drive on a runway.
You run on a track....
It doesn't quite fit the theme, but I wouldn't be surprised if Apple's next prediction of users' desired actions leads SUVs to go barreling down running tracks at high schools, mowing down triathletes and future Olympians with reckless abandon. The driver's explanation in court: "I was too busy trying to get out of this stupid app and make Siri shut up".
Shouldn't the airport be blocked against people that take their cars to the runway?
Cool. Apple is now providing taxiing directions for pilots!
Never shake hands with a man you meet in a fertility clinic.
It's called natural selection. If you are stupid enough to drive across a runway because your phone told you to, I say let them go ahead.
"Google Maps Flaw Sends Drivers Across Pacific Ocean" -- article circa 2009
FTFS:
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,
umm, it's weds morning. give them to EOD sounds reasonable.
"The airport said it had complained to the phone-maker through the local attorney general's office."
The airport couldn't contact Apple directly? Instead they need to involve other levels of bureaucracy and red tape?
Picky Alaskans.
Crossing a runway is fine if you're driving from Spain to Gibraltar.
http://izismile.com/2009/01/23/gibraltar_airport_runway_crosses_the_road_to_spain_12_pics.html
From the headline alone, before I even read the first sentence, I knew this had to be about England.
Only in England, it seems, do stories about people actually driving down cowpaths, fording rivers, and (apparently) crossing runways "because the GPS said so" originate.
(That said, I know of one airport in the US where the end of the runway intersects with the main road. There are signs in each direction advising drivers to yield to aircraft.)
Kid-proof tablet..
It's a user flaw.
I never understood how someone could just blindly follow GPS directions and enter what is most likely very well marked security area, or even just use common sense and NOT drive onto a runway. Also mind boggling is the idea of driving into a river or lake.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
But my phone told me to do it officer!
Supposedly the FAA issued a NOTAM (Notice To AirMen) about this, but I haven't been able to find it. I wonder what it said, something like "watch for dumbasses crossing the runway"?
99% of the time it's perfectly safe.
During the beta period which introduced Apple Maps, the same flaw existed for the Pittsburgh International Airport. Apple Maps would try to direct you to drive out onto the runway. It took months for Apple to get around to fixing the problem for PIA.
http://www.cio.com/article/686778/6_Memorable_Google_Maps_Mishaps?page=1#slideshow
Maybe the drivers in these cases should lose their license. Ignorance of the law is not a valid defense, so saying that my iPhone told me to drive across a runway should make no difference. If somebody is stupid enough to do that, they are too stupid to be allowed to drive. Maybe Apple should re-think their "Think Different" campaign and just tell people to "Think!"
Is this the first sign of the technological singularity? What better way to start picking off the puny human race than to lead them into dangerous situations....
I for one, welcome our new robot overlords.
or a hotel, or possibly a church...
I always thought the episode of The Office where Michael blindly follows his GPS into a pond was where the series jumped the shark. Now it appears that some people really are that stupid and perhaps it was a commentary on average intelligence rather than a cheap ploy for a laugh.
Why is an airport paying to install and power a gate that will just open for anyone? Why even have it there if you just have to wave your arms for it to open?
GPS is a replacement for maps, not for one's brain. All map systems have errors, including Google Maps, and you need to be ready for them.
I love google maps but i have encountered similar problems with their maps. why is this a story? Before google offered turn by turn navigation for the iphone I had bought Tom Tom app and they were terrible compared to both Apple and Google.
Sooner or later we are going to get stories when Tim Cook uses the bathroom.
You shouldn't be driving to the airport in the first place.
Take the light rail instead.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
What if this had been a "self-driven" car, like Google wants us to use?
Ooops.
Hundreds dead due to map error. Film at 11.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
You're not allowed to use your phone while driving.
Period.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Visited Gibralter a some years ago. I arrived by train from the Spanish side, went through customs and walked across the airport runway into Gibralter.
The airport is on the only flat section of land, and cars and pedestrians must cross the runway to enter Gibralter. On the way out, I heard an alarm going off and the gates far ahead of me were closing. Looked down the runway and there was a plane coming in. Needless to say I got off the runway as quickly as possible.
[Insert pithy quote here]
I live in Fairbanks Alaska, and use the airport a few times per month. Even though it serves big planes (737s and 757s, and even 747 cargo planes sometimes), it also has a substantial general aviation area, a float plane pond (i.e., a lake), and a number of small commercial operations that are on the GA side of the airport. You can see this a little bit in the the article's coverage, or fire up your favorite mapping program to take a look.
The commercial side of the airport is similar to anyplace else in the US: lots of fences, signs, and recordings saying you should not park in the red zone. The GA and small carrier side is more open. You can drive right up to, say, Wright Air's twin propeller aircraft and load up your dog food (or dogs). There are two pairs of runways and taxiways: one serves the commercial side, then there is a float pond in the middle, and then there is the side for GA and small in-state carriers.
What Apple directions do is bring people in via the GA side (which is over a mile away from the commercial side, and involves a very different driving route). As the article says, it's utterly ridiculous that anyone would drive from the GA side, through the parking lots onto the GA tarmac, onto the GA taxiway (literally driving among parked aircraft), cross the GA runway, find one of the crossing points for the pond, cross the commercial runway, and get onto the commercial taxiway on the way to the commercial tarmac. If they did, they'd have no way to get to the commercial side parking lot or into the ticket counter or whatever, without finding their way around a hefty fence. Ridiculous, unless you're ignoring all the signage and indicators that you're really in the wrong place.
The setup at FAI (aka PAFA) is not that unusual, even at fairly large airports. General aviation is very popular, and there are plenty of in-state commercial operations (especially in Alaska!) that do not require the same security procedures etc. as interstate or international. Getting to the general aviation area is usually just a matter of driving up. The situation at FAI, where you can get from the GA side to the commercial side, via runways, is typical at least at smaller regional airports. For the most part, large commercial aircraft stay on their runway, and smaller operators and private pilots stay on a different runway, taxiway, etc.
The airport doesn't get a ton of traffic. Just a few score commercial flights per day, and a seasonally variable number of smaller operators and private pilots. There is a control tower, so it's reasonable to assume that any misplaced people driving their car on the runway will be spotted by the tower operator, if an aircraft is preparing to take off or land. This isn't to understate the potential danger. I can imagine someone in a rush to get their plane, speeding across the runway before anyone spots them, resulting in a collision or other mishap.
I hope this helps. The pictures in the article are pretty good, but don't explain the two different sides of the airport.
PS: If you are in Fairbanks, and need to take an interstate commercial flight, drive along Airport Way. Just follow the signs.
You don't want to get on the airport unless youve bought the hangar there, otherwise the cops will be all over you.
This space for rent.
Are Apple Maps users really this dumb? Did you get a clue the map might be in error when it directed you TOWARDS the place where the big airplanes are? What happens if the map directs you over a cliff? Will that help cleanse the world of Apple brainwashed morons?
In New Mexico, Google maps sent drivers 50 miles out of their way because it doesn't know that a road that was closed 2 years ago in a flood was re-opened shortly after that. Considering this is a main route to a National Monument, it's not just some podunk mistake. They finally fixed this last week.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
I believe my 1-year-old comment will suffice:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3176825&cid=41612805
If any old grandma in a Buick is able to take a wrong turn and wind up driving down a runway, that airport has bigger problems than an Apple maps glitch.
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
Reporter: Why did you drive on the airport runway?
Driver: My iPhone said it was the fastest path to the airport
Reporter: If your phone said to drive off a cliff, would you?
Driver: Well duh, it's the fastest way to the bottom of the cliff
I think we're being a bit gullible here...
There is a toll road that runs from the Washington DC Beltway to Dulles airport. There is also a separated highway in between the toll road, dedicated for airport traffic only. The toll road sometimes backs up. The airport-only road almost never backs up unless there is a severe accident. In my courrier days, I'd sometimes drive the airport-only road, loop around the passenger pickup, and then make a delivery to an office located on surface streets and/or continue to points West. This didn't happen that often. I don't recall the dispatchers actively encouraging it... or forbidding it. Wink, wink.
I did this in the 80s. The level of security and paranoia being what it is these days, I probably wouldn't try it.
Of course you couldn't drive onto a runway at Dulles, not AFAIK. There was no reason to even think of it.
Considering many airports have bomb sniffing dogs & armed guards, I think the airport is oberdue for some of that "homeland security" funding. Locked Gates with big STOP signs on them would be a low tech & low cost solution. Pop-Up Tire Shredders & 1 meter tall stop walls as a second system to slow down willful tresspassers.
What if they were driving through the airport in Gibraltar?
The Kids app is acting up again.. did they Kill Kenny too?
What if this had been a "self-driven" car, like Google wants us to use?
Ooops.
Hundreds dead due to map error. Film at 11.
Naw, never will happen. Google cars use Google Maps and Google Maps knows the difference between roads and runways. Apple Maps was probably confused because of of the taxi way. Siri probably thought if taxis can go there, so can cars.
ps. It was a self-driven car. I think Google is pushing driverless cars.
I guess Google's recommended track was just too long...:-)
Apple Maps lacks the capacity to send anyone anywhere. What happened is that it made a stupid recommendation, as computers are apt to do, and as most people know computers are apt to do. And a small fraction of stupid/negligent/careless/malicious people blindly followed the recommendation, apparently unable to read signs or use common sense about whether or not to drive on runways.
If the airport people had been smart, then instead of putting up barriers (well, actually, maybe that's a good idea anyway, stupid maps or not) and "complaining to" Apple, they would have made fun of Apple and got an airport cop to profitably ticket all the stupid people who think it's ok to drive on airport runways.
The more I think of it, what we have here, is a way to mechanically catch the very worst/stupidest/most_negligent_and_dangerous drivers on the road. Cities ought to be making deals with Apple and Google to route morons into places where they'll prove to courts that they are incompetent drivers, and then we can have them removed from traffic, or at least their points will reflect the higher risks they pose and maybe their insurance rates will become more in line with the risks they choose, so everyone else can pay a little less. Everyone wins. I'm not sure it would even be entrapment, because most jurors would realize that the driver was stupid and negligent even before the city paid for the joke directions.
"R2D2, you know better than to trust a strange computer."
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Here in the UK the Ordnance Survey continue to show a bridleway (path for horses) crossing Blackbushe Airport in Hampshire. It's been like that for decades.
These instances are such bullshit. The maps are supposed to serve as a guide. Unless it is a self-driven car, I don't see any sane person driving in the wrong direction unless the roads have no signs. And in this case, an airport runway! Ridiculous.
Self-driven cars can use OCR to read the signs that humans ignore.
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Another crack pot case.
This is what happens if you leave your phone in Airplane Mode...
KateKarnage - Goth, Geek, Not all there......
Apple are going to sue the airport for violating the terms and conditions of their mapping by being in the wrong place
what would a driver-less car will do when it follows such maps!
"Heads I Win. Tails You Lose" --Apple
Casteism
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20130927/ak-beat-apple-maps-0-2-fairbanks-international
So many levels of FAIL...