Apple Maps Inaccuracies Can Be “Life-Threatening,” Says Australian Police

In the last two months Australian authorities have been forced to rescue a total of six people who used Apple Maps. A number of motorists recently became stranded within the Murray-Sunset National Park after following directions on their iPhones.

In what is considered a potentially “life threatening issue,” Victoria Police reports that authorities in Mildura, Australia are urging motorists to reduce their dependency on Apple Maps as numerous individuals have been wrongly directed in recent weeks.

Most recently, local police has had to assist a number of distressed motorists who had become stranded within the Murray-Sunset National Park after following bad directions using their iOS 6 devices.

Authorities cautioned that temperatures can reach as high as 46 degrees Celsius (115° Fahrenheit) in the park, “making this a potentially life threatening issue,” according to the Victoria police department’s site. Adding insult to injury, there’s also no water supply within the park.

Tests showed that Apple Maps shows Mildura some 70 km (43 miles) away from the city's actual location.

The Victoria Police has contacted Apple to report the issue to ensure it gets rectified. In the meantime, travelers heading to Mildura and other locations within Victoria are instructed to ditch iOS Maps and “rely on other forms of mapping until this matter is rectified.”

Other reports from the country say Victoria police have rescued six people in the last two months as a result of Apple Maps displaying wrong directions.

In a special interview with the NBC, Apple CEO Tim Cook promised he was putting “the weight” of his company behind fixing iOS Maps.

Apple this year ditched Google’s mapping service to replace it with a proprietary one. Unfortunately, Apple’s solution was only half-baked when the time came to release it.

After much dismay from the user base, Tim Cook eventually fired the people involved with the Maps project, including Scott Forstall, the company’s longstanding iOS chief.