In a tragic incident in Uttar Pradesh, three people died when Google Maps wrongly led their car to an under-construction bridge, leading the vehicle to plunge into a river. The incident took place in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly district on Saturday when the victims were headed to attend a wedding. They were relying on Google Maps to reach the venue when the GPS led them to the unfinished flyover.

This incident has again reignited the question about the trustworthiness of Google Maps. It is one of the most popular and widely used navigation systems by motorists, cyclists and pedestrians. However, in many cases, the navigation system has been accused of showing wrong data, which resulted in major mishaps like the latest one in UP.

Earlier this year, a Ford Endeavour SUV in Telangana literally landed in a canal after Google Maps misguided the driver. In another incident, a man in the US lost his life after Google Maps misguided him with the wrong route information, leading him to a broken bridge. Similar incidents have happened all around the world, which brought questions about the trustworthiness of this navigation system.

Why Google Maps can't be trusted blindly

Google Maps, Apple Maps, and Waze among other navigation applications have become a must-have weapon of the modern driver. These navigation applications make it convenient to navigate to a specific location. Applications like Google Maps help drivers to navigate to their destinations with turn-by-turn navigation instructions.

However, despite bringing convenience, these navigation applications' Achille's heel is the map data. Despite the developers trying to make the map as accurate as possible, the applications don't always show accurate information. There are disruptions such as unfinished roads and construction works, about which the applications may not be fully aware. Also, despite some applications like Waze offering data crowdsourcing in an attempt to make real-time changes, updating the map data in real-time is still impossible at some point.

In such cases, it is always best to rely on locals rather than blindly trusting navigation applications, as word of mouth is still more accurate than map data, especially in remote places.

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