The Failure of Artificial (and human) Intellegence
Online mapping is a great idea. We’ll be using Google maps to great extent as we develop this website. But, when mapping services try to think for you, look out!
This point was brought home last week when someone tried to drive their motor home over Schofield Pass from Crested Butte to Marble. They didn’t get far, just stuck in the mud somewhere above Gothic while trying for Schofield. But why?
Turns out the unfortunate land yachtsmen were depending on Google Maps for directions. Query below finds directions from Crested Butte to Marble and Redstone, Colorado. Note how it sends you over Schofield (even doing the Leadking loop rather than the shorter canyon route), but without advising you that you’ll definitely NOT make it in your motorhome!
We’re glad things turned out without injury for the latest victims of Google Maps, but this sort of thing happens all to often. For several years, Mapquest also made the same mistake, and the general store down in Marble even has a roster of folks who’ve tried Schofield in their passenger cars, only to turn back and end up at the store asking “what’s up with that road?” That is, if they made it back. After numerous requests and complaints, it appears Mapquest fixed their software so it sends folks on the highway route. But Google still blows it.
We kinda wish Schofield wasn’t even on the map, for more adventure. But if it is, they could at least get it right. But then, we’re Colorado not Long Island New York. In the latter case, I’ll bet they’re pretty accurate.
This is why I ALWAYS tell people to have a paper map to view there route on for confirmation. A quick check of a good paper map would have showed that the route was a jeep road not a highway. Using a GPS is great, but always verify the route.
Great comment. I spend my summers on the Marble side. You would not believe the number of confused people we see that believe their GPS or on-line travel routing is infallible. It’s good to have confirmation that the same thing is happening from the Crested Butte side. There’s a plethora of stories.
The same thing happens from Crested Butte to Aspen via Pearl Pass.
I would not venture to try that route in a stock Jeep, (well, maybe a mountain bike), but last year there was this guy in a Saturn sedan telling me that MapQuest said this was the way to Aspen, and he had to be there in 1 1/2 hrs. (Kebler had already opened, but he was still looking at a 3+hr drive).
Did I mention that the pass was still closed due to snow at his point in spring?