The incident is narrated by Shishir333 on T-Bhp but it happened to his close friend. The owner of a new Tata Harrier XM was travelling from Pune to Jabalpur at night with parents when he got into this situation. The owner of the Harrier was driving on such long routes for the first time and clearly, he did not prepare for it well. He took the help of Google Maps for the navigation and started from Pune at 9 AM. He planned to stop in Nagpur that night and as per Google Maps, it showed him that he will reach the destination by 11 PM.
Google Maps showed a route, which was a diversion from the main road near Amravati. He had driven 14 hours by then and he followed the alternate route without thinking much. However, he found out quickly that the dark and narrow route was not in a good shape but he kept his faith on Google Maps and went ahead. After covering about 20 km in an hour, he reached a small river creek that had a broken bridge. While the bridge was badly damaged, he found a route on the left of the bridge, which seemed fine for the Harrier to cross. However, as soon as he drove the vehicle over the river bed, the tyres lost traction and the vehicle kept on getting even more stuck.
After trying to get out of the situation for about 30 minutes, he left the vehicle in deep mud. He also noticed smoke coming out of the engine bay and burning smell, which could have been the signs of burning clutch. The electronics also gave up and his headlamps stopped working too.
He called the roadside assistance at 2:30 AM, which arrived one and a half-hour later from 70 km away. They rescued him and helped him navigate through the roads in the dark as the headlamps were not working. He said that the headlamps started working the next morning.
Relying on Google Maps
While Google maps are extremely good when you use it inside the city limits or daily commute to get the traffic information, you cannot blindly rely on it on the long-distance journeys. Settings like fastest route, routes without tolls, shortest route affect the route selection by Google Maps and you may have to take unnecessary diversions too. It is always a good idea to ask experts or join forums where you can discuss long route journeys. Also, always rely on your senses and stop and double-check if you feel that the maps are taking you in the wrong direction.
