Couple attacked in Cape Town crime hotspot sues ‘negligent’ Google

Google has said it cannot be held responsible for not diverting drivers away from crime hotspots after being sued by holidaymakers who were mugged and badly hurt while following its maps app.

The tech giant has said it cannot be liable for the actions of the attackers and should not be made to declare places no-go areas.

Jason Zoladz was smashed in the jaw with a brick then pulled from his rental car at gunpoint with his wife Katharine as they used Google Maps to navigate to Cape Town International Airport in October last year.

The couple from Los Angeles have begun legal action against Google in a California court alleging the Nyanga neighbourhood that Google Maps directed them into was a hotspot for violent attacks on tourists.

The couple allege Google was negligent in continuing to send tourists on the route despite warnings from the US and South African authorities.

“Gangs of robbers would lie in wait for tourists travelling in rental cars” and would “assault the cars by throwing bricks or large stones through the car windows, violently assaulting the occupants, and stealing valuables”, the lawsuit filed earlier this year said.

British surgeon killed in Nyanga

The attack on the couple was one of a series on tourists last year in Nyanga. Two months earlier, Kar Hao Teoh, a British surgeon, was killed in the area after reportedly following his sat nav during a taxi strike.

Walter Fischel, another American tourist, has also said he will sue Google after he was attacked in Nyanga last year.

His belongings and rental car were stolen after his sat nav suggested a shortcut through a notoriously violent area.

Mr Fischel said last month: “Before I came to Cape Town, Google Maps had already known Nyanga was a problem area yet it was still put on the route map.

“Why they did not remove it a long time ago is beyond me. They have caused major damage to my mental health and healing process.”

Google late last year announced it was no longer diverting drivers through Nyanga, but has now claimed that it has no legal responsibility to help its users avoid routes through crime hotspots, News24 reported.

In an application filed earlier this month to dismiss the Zoladz case before it gets to trial, Google argues it does not have control over neighbourhoods.

The company said it cannot advise against travel in large urban areas without having a “profound” effect on them, while the suit would punish Google for “truthful speech” in providing accurate directions to the airport.

Insisting that Google bar certain routes for the protection of users would also effectively give the government the ability to control the free movement of people and ostracise communities, the company said.

Google’s submission said: “An app developer seeking to avoid plaintiffs’ theory of liability would need to redline all such areas labelled ‘unsafe and no-go,’ whether in South Africa, the United States, or elsewhere.

“The impact on freedom - and on these ‘poor neighbourhoods’ in ‘urban areas’ - would be profound.”