«We trust blindly in the GPS»: the death of four young people in Cantabria opens the debate about browsers

The GPS that guided the four young people from Madrid who lost their lives last week in the port of Lunada (Cantabria) marked the shortest route to reach the destination. We know that the twenty -year -old group had gone to a rural house on the weekend, which were driving an Audi A3 and that they cleaned on a road without chitamiedos that, if it snows, is usually cut to the circulation. When the misfortune occurred, I was already snowing and yet The road still remained open and the GPS recommended it. As the residents of the Municipal Soba have declared, in which the section of the CA-643 is located in which the incident occurred, an SUV had rushed down a close slope in 2022. Was that the best of the routes? It seems not.

However, this misfortune could serve to become aware of how technology is changing driving habits (and not necessarily). According to this newspaper, he has consulted the DGT (General Directorate of Traffic), “it is common for many people to blindly trust the browser, but it is not recommended. Ideally, perform a previous analysis of the route and plan the trip. Even more with bad weather and without knowing the road, ”they recommend.

The browsers have not stopped evolving in recent years and, in addition, they have democratized. Google Maps or Waze (also owned by Google) are free applications that can be used in mobile phones without the need for the vehicle to have integrated browser. In fact, now it seems more than another era the purchase of a GPS screen for the Tomtom -style car.

Today the systems do not usually register major problems of obsolescence of the road network, as happened, but still do not incorporate reliable data of the weather situation. For example, in the worst days of the Dana de Valencia, these applications continued to set routes through flooded areas or streets ravaged by the flood. The operation of many of these browsers is based on the data shared by the users themselves. If three drivers mark that an accident took place at one point on the highway, the room that travels through the same place will receive the notice. On the other hand, they receive data from the speed at which their users go, so that they can determine whether in a section there is a jam or if, on the contrary, the traffic is fluid. The problem arises in ZOnly crowdedS, where the application lacks information from other users.

From Aesleme, association to educate road safety, emphasizes the negligent use that some VTC make of these mobility applications. “They do not know the street of the big cities, everything fiened the GPS, and there are not few times that end in the opposite or lost direction, giving a thousand turns.” Mar Cogollos, spokesman for Aesleme, indicates that browsers can also “Emboldene” to inexperienced people that “at the time of physical maps” they would not dare to take the car in what situations. It also points out that the screens can become, per se, a great source of distraction and that it is common for many drivers to use these mobility applications «to Avoid fines and have police controls locatedbut not to opt for the safest path, ”he says.

False security sensation

Spain is one of the countries of the European Union that most resorts to these navigation systems. According to the European Mobility Observatory of the FIA ​​(International Automobile Federation), the large majority of Spaniards (97%) have some mobility application in its mobile compared to 83% European. In this sense, Ramón Ledesma, an advisor to Pons Mobility, states that the widespread use of GPS could be causing a “false sensation of generalized security. Technology must be support, but never a substitute for the driver’s criteria ». The industry, he says, would be prevailing energy efficiency or emission reduction, but, in some cases, this results in less safe secondary routes. “Navigation systems must prevail road safety criteria in their algorithms, prioritizing well -marked roads and minimizing distraction at the wheel,” says Ledesma.

ABC has asked Google if it is proposed that its mobility applications incorporate data from the DGT or AEMET (State Meteorology Agency) or if they are already being integrated, but The technological giant has declined to participate in the report. In any case, the systems are susceptible to improvement. According to the International Road Transport Association (Astic), although the sign of geostationary satellites is the same for cars and trucks, GPS devices are usually much more sophisticated in the latter. For example, truck browsers that transport dangerous goods are adapted according to the RIMP (dangerous goods network of the Ministry of Transportation).

“Not even a vehicle with artificial intelligence and cameras can obtain information from other vehicles in a simple way,” says Marcos U. Pérez, an expert at risk of a road accident. The seven senses of the driver are, even in full technological revolution, the most reliable browser.