Australian Firefighters Call Apple Maps 'Dangerous'


Apple's much-criticized maps app has been labelled "dangerous" by the Country Fire Authority in Victoria, Australia.

The CFA's FireReady app for iOS is used by citizens to report bushfires, with the app requiring users to utilize Apple Maps. However, several locations depicted on the app are inaccurate. "Macedon and a number of other Victorian towns are located incorrectly," the firefighters said.

Upon a fire being reported, the firefighters have been experiencing issues in locating the reported area due to the aforementioned inaccuracies. "Users report that towns are located on their maps at the center of the district rather than on the actual township itself," said a CFA spokesman.

One complaint was of a user stating that Apple Maps doesn't always show the name of the city or township, thereby making it difficult to find the exact location of a fire. CFA stressed that when it complained to Apple Australia, the firm told it to report the problem through the Apple Maps app itself.

"We would advise FireReady app users with iOS6 installed on their devices to disregard Apple Maps township locations and instead focus on street names and the location of incidents & warnings in relation to their GPS location," the CFA said.

CFA suggested that users employ more than one source for emergency information, with the agency mentioning its website (based on Google Maps), which also showcases warnings.

Australian Apple Maps users have been stranded in a park for 24 hours due to inaccuracies. Authorities have also issued a warning for those who use Google Maps. Since then, Apple has applied fixes to its mapping solution, as well as promising to deliver more throughout 2013.

 

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Zak Islam
Contributing writer

Zak was a contributing writer at Tom's Guide with a focus on security, networking and general computing. As a fan of any and all news relating to hardware, graphics chips or CPUs, Zak has also written for other tech sites such as Tom's Hardware and Digital Trends.

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  • Devoteicon
    Apple's side of the story: Not a single fuck given
    Reply
  • sliem
    Don't bother them, they are busy innovating.
    Reply
  • gggplaya
    Google execs are opening up the champagne once again.
    Reply
  • aries1470
    1. We are always right (correct).
    2. If you believe you have found a mistake, refer to rule no. 1.
    3. There is no number 3. Refer to rule 1.

    Or send an email to donotreply.apple.com This is an un-monitorted email address
    Reply
  • SoiledBottom
    Your putting out the wrong fires
    Reply
  • john15v16
    This comes to mind...When apple attempted to develop their own desktop OS (OS7,8,9) and realized that it was a failure, they "Innovated" (sarcasm intended) and decided to switch to a Unix and focus on the shell instead of the kernel. That was an excellent move because starting with panther, apple OS has only improved. Well...you would think that by now apple would learn from their past mistakes and stop attempting to build solutions which they are obviously NOT good at...
    Reply
  • n700a_g1
    Crapple response: You stupid firefighters don't know how to operate your truck correctly
    Reply
  • wannabepro
    Maybe they're holding it wrong...
    Reply
  • house70
    If their website is GMaps-based, they don't even need to use Apple maps.
    In fact, nobody needs Apple Maps.
    Reply
  • Memnarchon
    Nah, Apple is correct. The roads need to innovate more and let cars to levitate.
    Reply