Couple suing Google Maps after it sent them to a notorious crime hotspot where they were brutally attacked and robbed at gunpoint::A Los Angeles couple filed a lawsuit against Google Maps for allegedly navigating them to a notorious South African crime neighborhood where tourists are left ‘injured, maimed or dead.’
I don’t see how it is a map’s duty to rank areas like this.
Can you imagine the knock-on effects of some places being decided as being “bad” by Google?
Businesses would collapse, the area worsen, crime and poverty increase, the people who live there would have a collapse in house prices, so they’d be trapped there.
Meanwhile, in the “good” areas, businesses would do better, property prices would be driven up more than they are already, and long term only the wealthy would be able to live there.
Not to mention the whole issue of “X place has been ranked as bad and it has predominantly Y ethnicity or Z religion living there! This is a hate crime by Google!”
People should be aware that South Africa in general is a dangerous place with a high crime rate, particularly violent crime.
17 people per 100k get stabbed to death, compared to 0.6 for the US, 0.2 for France, and 0.08 for the UK. That’s insane.
Homicide in general is 41.9 people per 100k (3rd highest worldwide). Compared to 6.4 in the US, 1.1 in France, 1.0 in the UK.
Personally, South Africa is a place to avoid. Particularly because tourists especially are targeted by criminals.
Apparently Google stopped routing people through Nyanga a few months ago https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-11-13-google-maps-will-no-longer-direct-visitors-through-cape-town-township-after-attacks-on-motorists/
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Should be the road authority’s responsibility to put a “gangs ahead next 5 km” sign, lol.
They have something like that
https://www.i-traffic.co.za/region/Western Cape#:Alerts
Enable the message sign filter. Some of them are like “MAKE PEACE WITH YOUR GOD NOW” and others are like “Remember to wash your ass, you filthy mf”
I frequented Cape Town and Johannesburg doing research, that also included going into black townships to chat with people. I myself had an escort of 15 huge guys with guns and still had all sorts of problems around Nyanga including a shoot out over me recording video. Would never walk or drive around there on my own, I saw so many tourists and (white) locals being targeted, attacked and beaten on the street. There’s a reason everyone lives in highly secure compounds. You should know this before going to SA. The most beautiful place, best food on the planet, but you may die for it.
It’s fine if you stick to the good areas and always be aware of your surroundings.
For people worried about finding the “good areas”, it’s not that tough. We stayed at a Hilton and it was super affordable to use their concierge service to get us a safe driver. He was personable and took us where we needed to go, and explained the safe and unsafe neighborhoods… Though we weren’t planning on doing any walking around randomly or anything. By affordable I mean they only charged like $50 for this guy to drive us for a few hours and wait in the car while we did our sightseeing. We gave a good tip at the end and he was very happy.
South Africa is beautiful and if you can afford to get there, you can probably afford to use this kind of service to be there safely.
50 sounds like a steal for a handful of hours and a local that knows what’s up.
I’d never go to a place that is less safe than my hometown
Depending on your hometown, that’s a terrible philosophy.
That’s the philosophy that doesn’t get you killed by a street gang. 10/10
Yeah, but if you start labeling neighborhoods as “bad” on a mapping program you have a different set of problems.
People need to be aware of their surroundings and not cluelessly follow programs like this.
I don’t think it is simply “huh this place looks sketch”. Not sure if you read the article.
The thing is, the criminals knew that Google routes rental cars along a typical route and so they ambush tourists violently along that route. For all I know the route may look fine.
Anyway, you don’t have to label neighborhoods. Just have the app route them differently…
…But wouldn’t the criminals catch onto that before long so that the new route becomes the ambush zone?
Maybe there is a solution like randomly choosing a particular path at different hours but the fewer alternate routes the less effective that will be. Criminals could simply stake out one route and wait a little longer before a victim passes by.
But is this really a mapping company’s problem to solve? Is the map app responsible for traveler security? What if you ask to be routed into or through a war zone (e.g. somewhere in Ukraine). Does the map app refuse? Warn you? Or what?
What if someone gets a paper map? Is the map maker responsible? How about the rental car employees?
Where does the responsibility of the tourist begin and end here?
My point was the that labeling certain areas as “bad” can create problems, even if it’s an area known for carjacking tourists. What defines a “bad” area? Petty theft? Drug arrests? Violent crime? Homelessness? How much crime does it take to be labeled “bad”? Unfortunately a lot of those areas are tied to poverty, and all too often poverty is tied to minorities. So say we start labeling areas, now traffic is reduced and maybe it even starts impacting local businesses because people are now checking the box that says “avoid bad areas” and routes people around a place that maybe got drive thru traffic at the coffee shops or gas stations.
You can easily see how difficult this is a policy to make. I’m not dismissing the problems these people encountered, but implementing this in popular guidance apps isn’t going to be easy.
