Who Says you can’t Trust Google Walking Man?

June 2nd, 2010. By AbiK

Did you catch the National Geographic Bee on tv? With Google’s Brian McClendon—VP of Engineering for Google Earth and Maps on stage afterward to hand out some of the awards? It was impressive. Just like Google Earth and Google Maps—c’mon, you know you’ve played astronaut and zoomed in from outer space to the speck on the map you call home…

But impressive as Google Earth and Maps are, they’re not perfect. Which is apparently Lauren Rosenberg’s beef in the lawsuit she filed against Google. Seems she did a little Google Maps search from 96 Daly Street, Park City, Utah, to 1710 Prospector Avenue, Park City, Utah. She opted for walking directions. And, she got ’em. She also got hit by a car when she tried to walk ’em.

Now, here’s the thing. Google’s directions—for walking—apparently included a trek down Deer Valley Drive, which is aka Utah State Route 224. Aka, a highway.

Reports (like the one from pcworld.com) indicate that Lauren was “walking down the middle of the highway”. Tuck that one away for now.

But I also offer up the visual above. Am I the only one who looks at the map and the satellite view and the little Google walking man view? Take a look at the picture–that’s the intersection of the aforementioned Deer Valley Drive and Bonanza Drive. The blue line being part of the route Lauren would be taking. Note the traffic light. Note the 3 lanes (2 for through traffic, 1 for turns). Note the lack of a sidewalk. Note that there are probably a few blind curves along Deer Valley Drive. Note to self: there might be some risk here.

So I got to thinking (never a good thing). And I’m thinking, hey, I’ve got a meeting coming up in Santa Cruz, CA–that’s where LawyersAndSettlements.com’s headquarters are. Why not walk to it? Ok, I’m based near NYC, but why not? So I Googled the walking directions. Here they are:

I’m pleased that Google took my request seriously—no, “Look, babe, maybe you ought to be heading over to Expedia for this one” warning message. Google thinks I can make it! We’re both delusional—cool! But I also noticed they didn’t give me notes about remembering to bring enough water, making sure I have places booked to spend the nights (all 39 of them!) and that I’ll need my passport as my walking route will take me into Canada for a bit. Hmm. Google also did not warn me of the dangers of hitchhiking or of wandering into dark places. And that would be because those are, uh, my responsibilities.

So back to Lauren. She got hit by a car—and I do feel badly for her. So she’s suing not only the driver of the car, but also Google, for her medical expenses of $100,000 and punitive damages. Part of her complaint states that Google provided “careless, reckless and negligent providing of unsafe directions”.

I’m curious why Blackberry isn’t involved here. Lauren—according to the filed complaint—Googled the directions on her Blackberry. Why not sue them, too—because the damn screen is too small to really see Google walking man strutting his stuff? Just asking.

And finally, back to that report that she had been walking in the middle of the highway. I hope the report is wrong—otherwise, perhaps the place Lauren should’ve been heading was Bear Hollow Psychotherapy—right near her intended destination of Park Regency Apartments—according to Google Maps (if you can trust that…)

Tags: Google, Google Maps, Lauren Rosenberg, Park City UT

This was posted on Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010 at 1:53 pm and is filed under Emerging Issues, lawsuits . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.