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So what I gathered from this article is that the "danger" is entirely theoretical. No one has actually made this mistake, or even claimed to have almost made this mistake?

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Historically people have regularly fallen off Ben Nevis and killed themselves by mistaking the path they're on. It's one of the things the mountain is known for in mountaineering circles. (Source: long ago was in said circles)

Sure, but I assume those people didn't make that mistake because of automated directions? Google maps will also happily draw a line to the White House[1], but no one is concern trolling about how the dotted line could lead people to mistakenly trespass across a restricted area... To me this is just the BBC having an axe to grind with tech companies.

[1] https://goo.gl/maps/uVa2cqpNGy3YMaJs7

I agree that the BBC article is poor, but an earlier article in The Guardian made clear that this was more than concern trolling:

“But this is not the correct route and we often come across groups of inexperienced walkers heading towards Steall Falls or up the south slopes of Ben Nevis believing it is the route to the summit.”

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/jul/16/google-ma...

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