Leading her to a busy highway with no sidewalks

May 31, 2010 15:50 GMT  ·  By

Things like Google Maps and other online services have generally made our lives easier. Using Maps to get directions is a great way of getting about without paying for an expensive GPS device. But Google’s services are far from perfect and considering the sheer amount of data they handle, it’s understandable. 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 your all of your faith in technology is, generally, not a great idea and, sometimes, a dangerous one as well.

As the case of one woman in the US proves, common sense is still needed as much as ever. The woman asked Google Maps for walking direction on her Blackberry. Failing to find a suitable route, Maps instructed her to go along a busy local highway with no sidewalks. Most people, when walking up to the highway and finding it not particularly suited for pedestrians, would try to find an alternative route. Lauren Rosenberg, the woman in question, decided to go ahead.

Unfortunately for her, she was then hit by a car. At this point, again, most people would take responsibility for their mistake and try to move on. This being the US though, she decided to sue both Google and the driver that hit her instead. Suing the driver is bad enough, but to sue Google is downright ridiculous.

Her claim is that, since Google didn’t offer any warning, walking down a highway not suitable for pedestrians was a bad idea. Google does warn users that the path may be dangerous for pedestrians, but only in the desktop version of the site. It didn’t have these warnings on the mobile Blackberry version, so the woman is suing for at least $100,000. Hopefully, the judge will dismiss the case quickly.