14 DAY TRIAL // Waze might be the number one traffic navigation app, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s always working flawlessly.
And hundreds of drivers who were heading to an Atlantic City resort certainly know this best, as instead of ending up playing poker and enjoying of Mojito, they actually found themselves stranded in the middle of nowhere.
An erroneous Borgata Hotel, Casino, and Spa ad on Waze, which apparently way too many drivers clicked, directed users to a New Jersey wildlife preserve, which is approximately 70 miles north of the Atlantic City resort.
And what’s more, the area has mostly unpaved roads, so it’s not necessarily a surprise that tens of drivers called for assistance after their cars got stuck. The Jackson township Police Department says a total of 10 cars were towed in just 5 days, with one driver actually calling for help after ending up some 10 minutes away from paved roads.
“My department towed 10 cars in 5 days that were stuck. A Waze response to the error report stated 249 others reported the same location error in the past couple days, so hundreds have been misled back there,” public information officer Lt. Christopher Parise told CNN.
Issue corrected
The police reached out to Waze, who said that the wrong geographical coordinates were fixed within hours after receiving the report.
“Users can now navigate smoothly to the Borgata Hotel,” Waze said in a statement.
The hotel also recommended drivers to manually enter the address of the resort in the Waze app rather than clicking the ad.
“We encourage guests to reenter our correct address: 1 Borgata Way, Atlantic City, NJ 08401 and to check the route before they begin driving to ensure the map is directing them to Atlantic City,” a resort official explained.
The ad has also been updated with the correct information, however drivers who have already clicked the original version should remove the destination from the recent entries.