Chinese driver’s GPS leaves him stranded in muddy ditch
Man finds water seeping into his car after insisting on closely following his smartphone’s global positioning system
A Chinese man working for a car-hailing company insisted on reaching his customer’s destination by following the map instructions on his smartphone’s GPS too closely – and was left stranded in his car in a muddy ditch, mainland media reports.
The man, surnamed Yu, who had picked up his customer in Chengdu, Sichuan province, at 11pm on Wednesday, was finally rescued about five hours later, the Chengdu Business Daily reported.
Yu‘s problems began after he insisted on closely following the route instructions on his smartphone, even though his customer said he knew the way.
About half an hour later, Yu drove his vehicle straight into a muddy roadside ditch in the city’s suburb, which left water seeping into the car up to his calves, the report said.
He was quoted as saying in the report that other customers had complained to the car-hailing company that he had not followed the route map on his smartphone used by his firm.
Yu was so worried about receiving another complaint that he had been determined to follow the route on the company’s map without question this time.
His unhappy customer was collected by his wife in another car at about 1am on Thursday.
But Yu stayed behind and tried – without success – to get local residents to help pull his vehicle out of the ditch.
In the end, he called for help from an emergency rescue company, which finally came to his aid at 4am.
The report did not say which company had provided the route map for the car-hailing company.
