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Incident 155: Google Maps Allegedly Directed Sierra Nevada Travelers to Dangerous Roads amid Winter Storm

Description: Lake Tahoe travelers were allegedly guided by Google Maps into hazardous shortcuts in the mountains during a snowstorm.

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Alleged: Google Maps developed and deployed an AI system, which harmed Google Maps users traveling in Sierra Nevada and Google Maps users traveling in the mountains.

Incident Stats

Incident ID
155
Report Count
2
Incident Date
2021-12-27
Editors
Sean McGregor, Khoa Lam
Applied Taxonomies
CSETv1, GMF, MIT

CSETv1 Taxonomy Classifications

Taxonomy Details

Incident Number

The number of the incident in the AI Incident Database.
 

155

MIT Taxonomy Classifications

Machine-Classified
Taxonomy Details

Risk Subdomain

A further 23 subdomains create an accessible and understandable classification of hazards and harms associated with AI
 

7.3. Lack of capability or robustness

Risk Domain

The Domain Taxonomy of AI Risks classifies risks into seven AI risk domains: (1) Discrimination & toxicity, (2) Privacy & security, (3) Misinformation, (4) Malicious actors & misuse, (5) Human-computer interaction, (6) Socioeconomic & environmental harms, and (7) AI system safety, failures & limitations.
 
  1. AI system safety, failures, and limitations

Entity

Which, if any, entity is presented as the main cause of the risk
 

AI

Timing

The stage in the AI lifecycle at which the risk is presented as occurring
 

Post-deployment

Intent

Whether the risk is presented as occurring as an expected or unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
 

Unintentional

Incident Reports

Reports Timeline

Incident OccurrenceGoogle Maps may have led Tahoe travelers astray in snowstormSnow Closed the Highways. GPS Mapped a Harrowing Detour in the Sierra Nevada.
Google Maps may have led Tahoe travelers astray in snowstorm

Google Maps may have led Tahoe travelers astray in snowstorm

sfgate.com

Snow Closed the Highways. GPS Mapped a Harrowing Detour in the Sierra Nevada.

Snow Closed the Highways. GPS Mapped a Harrowing Detour in the Sierra Nevada.

nytimes.com

Google Maps may have led Tahoe travelers astray in snowstorm
sfgate.com · 2021

It appears that Google Maps may have guided weary Lake Tahoe travelers to closed-off and even dangerous roads amid record-setting snowfall.

Social media posts, including from Crystal Kolden, a professor of forest sciences at UC Merced, have…

Snow Closed the Highways. GPS Mapped a Harrowing Detour in the Sierra Nevada.
nytimes.com · 2021

The road once carried stagecoaches during the Gold Rush, twisting its way through what is now a national forest and an area of the Sierra Nevada known for snowmobiling.

In the winter, the rugged passage, known as the Quincy-La Porte Road or…

Variants

A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.

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