A 23-year-old man was rescued on a mountainside in Utah after becoming trapped in his car after following a “shortcut” route recommended by Google Maps.
The man, whose name has not been released, was driving a Toyota Tercel up Strawberry Peak, an unmaintained dirt road, on the Fourth of July heading toward Vernal from Springville, authorities said. Wasatch County Search and Rescue.
But the two-door vehicle was unable to negotiate the rough terrain and the driver became trapped in the dark woods just before 12:40 a.m., authorities said.
He called 911 and search and rescue teams responded.
The rescue operation took a total of three hours as crews ferried the driver off the mountain to safety, the group said.
The driver was not injured.
Google Maps has misdirected drivers before, and in some cases the errors have been fatal.
In 2022, a married man and father of two drove his Jeep off the road and into a creek on a dark, stormy night after following Google Maps directions that didn’t take into account a bridge there that had collapsed nearly a decade earlier.
The car fell off an unprotected edge and plummeted 20 feet into the ocean. Phillip Paxson, 47, drowned and his wife sued the tech giant for negligence last September.
