Thread: Rotten Apple GPS Maps

Originally Posted by OffTrack

It's baffling. Why anyone would turn down Last Hope Track, drive out across Raak Plains past abandoned the gypsum works, before they even hit the sandy stuff is beyond me. It's a few years since I've driven that track but I seem to recall there are even a couple of farm gates you have to open and close at one point. Surely that would have to trigger a "Can't be right" alarm in the brain??

So what you're saying is that the 6 people who had to be rescued were the ones not fitted with the "Can't be right sensor" in their brains and there were dozens or maybe even hundreds of others who turned back before requiring rescue but after being misdirected by rotten apple maps.

Was actually talking about this very topic with a few AULRO members around the campfire a month or so back, and I think that pretty much everyone was in agreement that it's not the technology at fault, but the people using it.

If apple maps or google maps or any of the other mapping software was actually used as a MAP, then these problems wouldn't exist. Before the advent of GPS, people sat down in front of a paper map, decided where they wanted to go, perhaps sussed out a couple of campsites or rendez-vouz points on paper, made note of a few waypoints along the way and actually looked out the window at signposts along the way to make sure they were heading in the right direction.

People don't actually want maps anymore. What they actually want is a screen in the car with a big button on the touchscreen that says [TAKE ME THERE!!!], and blindly follow it until an automated voice spits out "You have reached your destination." It's the same reason that people are driving clean across roundabouts in Europe, or driving through fields on roads that haven't been made yet - if the GPS says go straight, then who am I to argue.

Coupled with that is the fact that nowadays a lot of "4WD enthusiasts" are labelled that, simply because they've trumped up the cash for the latest and greatest 4WD. Not that long ago, when people were more careful about how they spent, or didn't have the luxury of disposable income, those that owned a 4WD did so because they either needed it for work or to get around, or because going out bush was their hobby, their passion, and they were willing to make the investment to follow their hobby. Either way, 4WD owners were educated about their vehicles, and about at least the rudiments of bushcraft. Nowadays, people are buying 4WD's because it'll look nice with the boat and the jetski's in the front garden, not necessarily because they actually know how to drive a 4WD.

It's actually worth a wander round the yard at Triumph Rover Spares to see this in action. Up the front of the yard there are almost as many rolled Defenders less than 5 years old, as there are scrapped Defenders and County's dating back 30 years down the back of the yard. When I was chatting with the boys in the yard, they say that it's because people are buying them and don't know how to drive them.

"4WD drivers relying on these are getting badly lost where they could die from lack of water, etc,. stuck in soft sand because they were sent of track."

That driver has more issues than his GPS not working. He's out there on his own, he's out there without recovery gear, or the knowledge how to use it, he's possibly out there without enough water to last the day. And he apparently doesn't know how to read a map. What would you think of that guy if the same story came out before the days of GPS??

Sure, anyone can be unlucky. But a lot of this seems to be Darwinian selection in action....