Google Maps detour leads drivers astray into the middle of the desert
A brother and sister followed a Google Maps detour on their way home from Las Vegas, but it landed them in the middle of nowhere and down a desert road that damaged their car.
"Ironically, we actually thought we were taking the safer route home," Shelby Easler told KVVU. "It said there was a dust storm warning on the I-15 so there was an alternate route that had popped up to take a detour."
Easler and her brother, who were visiting Las Vegas from Southern California, took the detour, which promised to save them 50 minutes.
"We'd never driven to Vegas before, so none of us knew that there was only really the I-15 is the only way that you can take back and forth," she said.
The two drove for about two hours and eventually hit a gravel road.
"I was trying to sleep in the back unsuccessfully," Easler recalled. "The minute we hit the gravel road I'm like why is it getting so bumpy in here, what is going on?"
That gravel road continued to get rougher and suddenly, they were in the middle of a desert.
"It was so uneven that the car was like sideways half the time," Easler said.
Easler estimates that there were 100 cars following the same road, including a truck at the front of the line that eventually stopped and started telling others to turn around. Some cars got stuck.
Easler said she called 911.
"They did say though that this actually does happen a lot with Google Maps detours," Easler said. "And they are like you know if Google Maps tells you to take a detour don't do it because you are going to end up in sand. We get calls like this a lot."
Google says it has since fixed the Las Vegas detour issue.