Google, we trust you for safe navigation

Google, which can easily be described as a technology giant, plays a significant role in facilitating the movement of the time we live in, starting from searching for information, clearing doubts and exchanging messages to transferring money. Google celebrated its 25th birthday on the 27th of last month. The company had humble beginnings, founded by Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who were research students at Stanford University. They developed Google in their dorm and later in a garage, with the search engine eventually becoming a compelling universal presence. Over the past 25 years, there are likely very few individuals, be they students, teachers, medical professionals, rescue workers, police officials, engineers, journalists, or artists from various walks of life, who are not indebted to Google's search engine.

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It is not for nothing that this zenith of information that blooms at our fingertips is known varyingly as 'Mahaguru' and 'Hazrat Google'. Having India-born Sundar Pichai as its current CEO has possibly strengthened our emotional attachment to the company too. Once reserved for techies and at the least computer literates, Google services have now become universal as they entered the omnipresent smartphones that have become almost a part of one's person. Today, it is a situation where one cannot simply dismiss the services provided by Google even as there exists an accusation that it exhibits a kind of capitalist predilection by hiding or rejecting selected critical information and prominently displaying information that is of interest to powerful governments, institutions and industrial groups. However, when the right to life is fundamental to human beings, one cannot remain silent about a grave fault when it poses a threat to life.

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On the second day of Google's birth anniversary, a car accident took place in Kerala. The car carrying friends who were returning to Kodungalloor from Ernakulam after a birthday celebration fell into a tributary of Periyar in Gothuruth and two young doctors lost their lives. As most people do in the modern world, they turned to Google Maps as their guide on the journey. The preliminary information was that the car plunged into the river causing the accident as they followed the directions given by Google Maps. The police and Motor Vehicles department officials were quoted as giving explanations that Google was innocent and that it had recorded the routes correctly. Even if acquitted in this case, it is not the first time that Google Maps has misguided motorists and led to accidents. It will be clear if we study the accidents caused by vehicles falling into water bodies in recent times in the country. An accident which claimed a life when a car fell into a dam in Akole near Ahmadnagar in Maharashtra and a car carrying a family falling into a canal in Kottayam are just examples. Recently there was news in the media about the trap that people, who drive to the Athirappily tourist spot following Google Maps directions, fall into. It is the responsibility of the service provider to curb this life-threatening behaviour even if the guidance is based on satellite imagery and information provided by users.

Similar accidents happen in foreign countries as well. Last month, the family of Philip Paxson, who died after falling into a lake in North Carolina in the US by following Google Maps directions, took legal action against Google for its criminal negligence. Google has a responsibility to make this system, which has now become an integral part of human life, flawless. Otherwise, it will wipe out all the good that it has given to the world to date. The duty of the authorities is not limited to instructing the travellers to exercise caution. The tech giant must be instructed to rectify the grave faults that endanger human lives.

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