Lost in the desert because of Google Maps: the bizarre story that happened to a group of motorists

Directly from America Here comes a rather bizarre story, which has Google Maps as its protagonist. Proceeding in order, a video was published on TikTok showing a long line of cars traveling along the same route that leads from Las Vegas (location of a Formula 1 race) to Los Angeles. So far, nothing strange. However, by looking carefully at the clip you can see that it is not a traditional road but rather the Nevada desert. The culprit of all this? It would appear that it was Google Maps, which indicated this alternative route in order to avoid a dust storm that was affecting Interstate 15.

Motorists thus found themselves traveling along an unusual road, even “accompanied” by wild donkeys. Some then remained stranded, with Google Maps also apparently losing the GPS signal. At a certain point, therefore, rescue intervention was necessary who, however, were busy managing the vehicular flow on the highway.

Therefore, users contacted roadside assistance, which after a few hours intervened to save the motorists.

This story confirmed a fact that is not exactly unknown: it is not always advisable to follow the fastest route suggested by navigation apps. In this regard, someone has hypothesized that the motorists involved could have forgotten to disable the “Unpaved roads” option on Google Maps. In any case, Google has not yet commented on this potential Maps error, while the video has now become quite viral.