Embarrassing defects in Apple's new Maps app may be inconvenient for some, but for others in Australia they could be deadly.
Police in the city of Mildura, Victoria are warning motorists to be careful when using the iOS 6 service in the area, because the app incorrectly lists Mildura as being in the middle of Murray Sunset National Park. The flaw has consequently lead several motorists to become stranded in the Australian Outback.
Sunset National Park is not a typical park with barbecue cookouts and babbling brooks, but more than 3,000 square miles of Australian bush that contains poisonous snakes and insects, has very little water or mobile reception, and has recently seen temperatures of 115 degrees Fahrenheit.
It's also about 43 miles away from the real Mildura. Google Maps shows Mildura as being to the north-west of the park.
This is a "potentially life-threatening issue," Victoria Police say. Officers have found some motorists were stranded for as long as 24 hours with no food or water, and were forced to walk for long distances through "dangerous terrain" with virtually no shade, to get phone reception.
Victoria Police sent an e-mail to Apple on Monday morning Sydney time, asking it to fix the flaw, but a check on the location on Apple Maps at 10pm Pacific time on Sunday shows the app is still showing the city as incorrectly being in a pocket of land in the middle of the desert park.
Apple could not be reached for comment, and Victoria Police say the company has yet to respond to their reporting of the flaw.
Inspector Simon Clemmence of Victoria Police says six vehicles have so far contacted the police asking for help because the app sent them off course, and officers are worried because Australia is now entering its summer season. Last week temperatures in the park reached 112 degrees Fahrenheit.
Among the stranded was one man who drove so far into the park he was forced to walk for 24 hours to get into mobile-phone range. Fortunately temperatures were not at their highs on that day, but had they been "there's a fair chance he may not have made it," says Clemmence.
"Say you got a whole family up there, little kids, at 112 degrees, you didn't bring any water because you thought you were just going to pull into a town and have a coke and pie, but instead you're stuck in a desert and your car is stuck, not going anywhere," he added. "Someone has to find some reception on a phone."
Most drivers were not tourists, he added, but Australians traveling from Adelaide to Mildura, or going via the city to Sydney.
"These are just family cars that are being directed up these roads," he says. "They turn into sandy tracks and they get stuck... Some people just trust the technology. Any sat-nav is going to give you errors, but this one in particular is giving us a big one that may end up in a loss of life."
Clemmence believes several more drivers have been misdirected by Apple's app due to anecdotal evidence from other local police running a breath-testing station on Mallee Highway. They claim to have met a number of other motorists complaining of being diverted to the desert park by their GPS devices when heading for Mildura.
Clemmence says it took a day or so to figure out how to report the issue to Apple, saying the tech giant "insisted that we write a letter twice." He eventually managed to identify a police-specific e-mail line for the company. Victoria Police's press representatives have also contacted Apple Media, hoping to expedite matters.
"You known how that is once it get in the media," Clemmence adds. "People start jumping up and doing things."
Apple's foray into the mobile mapping service has been short of disastrous. It introduced its Maps app as part of the update to its mobile operating system, iOS 6 in September 2012; but after reports of myriad flaws emerged, Chief Executive Tim Cook apologized and fired the head of the iOS 6 software division, Scott Forstall. Among it's biggest, potentially dangerous blunders: showing the incorrect address for Washington, Dulles Airport, replacing a hospital in Florida with a supermarket, strange, 3D-depictions of landmarks like London's Big Ben, and many more.
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