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Apple Maps sends errant drivers onto airport runway

Updated Dec 19th, 2018 8:43PM EST
Apple Maps Disaster

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Ever since kicking Google Maps to the curb as its default mapping app, Apple has been doing everything it can to create a capable replacement, with less-than-stellar results so far. Although things have been quiet on the Apple Maps disaster front for a few months, it was only a matter of time until it did something life-threatening like leading Alaskan drivers to make a dangerous detour down an airport runway. That’s right, according to The Independent, “the company’s Maps app misled drivers, leading them to drive across a main runway” at Fairbanks International Airport.

“Fairbanks International Airport told a local newspaper that twice in the past three weeks drivers from out of town have driven through the airport after being given bad directions by their iPhones,” The Independent writes.

After the Fairbanks airport became aware of the first incident, the staff asked Apple to disable directions around the area entirely until the problem was solved. Two weeks later the problem had not been solved and the directions had not been disabled, so a second driver managed to stumble onto the runway. As of Wednesday, Apple has still not fixed the directions, so Fairbanks has had to resort to barricading the entrance ramp. A photo recommending the runway detour can be found below.

Jacob Siegal
Jacob Siegal Associate Editor

Jacob Siegal is Associate Editor at BGR, having joined the news team in 2013. He has over a decade of professional writing and editing experience, and helps to lead our technology and entertainment product launch and movie release coverage.