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Comment by ptaipale | Hacker News Reader

Not sure why you get downvotes, but you have a kind of a point. "Fun" over here translates to "emergency services having to go out and save people who were riding a boat and trusted iPhone navigation, instead of having nautical charts and navigation skill, and ended up on a rock somewhere".

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..or drive into the lake, because GPS said it's the right way to go:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2003998/Wrong-way-Th...

Quite, although there I'd be more forgiving, as people react to driving instructions from navigator's voice on a short notice. But to go out to the sea without proper navigation and other equipment is something that one only does after a conscious decision.

An example is a group of men who tried to get 1000 Facebook likes for a project of building a raft and crossing the Gulf of Finland, some 50 nautical miles, in order to buy cheap booze in Tallinn. They didn't get that many likes but decided to go anyway, and ended up in news.

http://yle.fi/uutiset/homemade_raft_to_tallinn_experiment_di...

A happy ending, because when their engine died, they were still within the reach of GSM network and could call for help. They were fined a ridiculous 35 euros total for this.

Emergency services do not (typically) use Google Maps. They use special navigation services that can plot optimal routes while ignoring certain traffic rules. For example, fire trucks can and will go the wrong way down a one-way street; something Google Maps will not account for.

Exactly, what I tried to say is that emergency services (particularly search and rescue on sea) have to go out and save people who were in a boat and relying on Google Maps or Apple services (in the old times, the same people would navigate coastal waters with a map torn out of a phone book).

The SAR teams themselves of course have dedicated equipment and the staff are required to master traditional navigation skills so they can find their way around even without that equipment.

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