Is Google Responsible For Giving Bad Directions?

This is a rather interesting review of a lawsuit filed by a woman who used Google "Walking Directions" on her Blackberry.

The case, Rosenberg v. Harwood, was filed in Utah, in the US District Court’s Central Division (Gary Price of ResourceShelf tipped us to it today). Harwood is Patrick Harwood, the person who actually hit Rosenberg, according to the suit. Both Harwood and Google are being sued in the same case, for damages “in excess of $100,000.”

Rosenberg used Google Maps on January 19, 2009, via her Blackberry, to get directions between 96 Daly Street, Park City, Utah and 1710 Prospector Avenue, Park City, Utah. Google provided these, telling her as part of the route to walk for about 1/2 mile along the calm-sounding “Deer Valley Drive.”

That’s an alternative name for that section of Utah State Route 224, a highway that lacks sidewalks, the case says. Rosenberg wasn’t warned about this, putting Google directly at fault in the accident, the case claims:

There's of course, a lot of things going on here, including what is being displayed on the web versus the mobile version. And the same route is also being given by other map applications.

In the end, we all have to use a bit of a common sense in these situations. I've used GPS's and other maps where the directions being given make no sense. Still, I guess if one doesn't know where one is going, or one is in a very unfamiliar territory, how is one to know if something makes no sense? In this case, my guess would be the lack of a pedestrian sidewalk.

It would be interesting to see how this plays out in court.

Zz.