Mistaken Reading of Google Navigation App Waze Leads Soldiers Into Enemy Camp

Wait. Highly trained soldiers have trouble using GPS and you're supposed to use it to find your friends at a newly opened bar? Just sayin.'  JL

John Reed reports in the Financial Times:

Israel’s defence minister said “I learned ages ago the importance of navigating with the aid of a real map, and mainly to know the surrounding area and not to rely too heavily on technology which can lead the user astray.” The soldiers failed to select an option on the app that allows users to avoid Palestinian-controlled areas.
Waze, Google’s navigation and mapping app, has been blamed for guiding two Israeli soldiers into a Palestinian refugee camp, where their vehicle was set on fire and one person was killed in violent clashes.“The soldiers were apparently using Waze,” said Moshe Ya’alon, Israel’s defence minister, on Tuesday.“I learned ages ago the importance of navigating with the aid of a real map, and mainly to know the surrounding area and not to rely too heavily on technology which can lead the user astray.”
However, Waze — which was founded in Israel and has a large local operation — denied any responsibility for the incident. It said that the soldiers had failed to select an option on the app that allows users to avoid Palestinian-controlled areas.
“[Waze] includes a specific default setting that prevents routes through areas which are marked as dangerous or prohibited for Israelis to drive through,” the Google-owned app developer said in a statement.
“In this case, the setting was disabled. In addition, the driver deviated from the suggested route and, as a result, entered the prohibited area.
“There are also red signs on the road in question that prohibit access to Palestinian-controlled territories (for Israelis). It is the responsibility of every driver to adhere to road and traffic signs and obey local laws.”

News of the incident, which took place overnight, came shortly after Google was embarrassed by reports of a first road traffic accident involving its driverless car in the US.

Google bought Waze, which “crowdsources” information from users and other sources to create up-to-date driving maps, for a reported $1.3bn in 2013.
Israel’s military confirmed that the soldiers “were using GPS navigation”. It was still looking into the details of why their vehicle had been in the Qalandiya refugee camp, it confirmed. The camp, on the outskirts of Ramallah, north of Jerusalem, is one of the occupied West Bank’s most volatile places.
According to the Israel Defence Forces, a crowd of people in the camp threw rocks and petrol bombs at the vehicle and set it alight. The two men fled on foot. The IDF then launched a mission to extract the soldiers, during which rioting broke out.

A report from the Palestinian Ma’an news agency said 12 people had been injured during several hours of clashes and Omar Sajadiyya, 22, had been killed after Israeli forces fired rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas-canisters into the crowd.

The IDF said the rioters had “opened fire” at the troops by hurling improvised explosive devices, rocks and Molotov cocktails.
Waze is regarded in Israel as one of the greatest cross-border success stories to emerge from the thriving tech industry.

But it has not steered clear of political controversy relating to the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Last year, amid a wave of violence in Jerusalem, Waze began directing drivers away from the Palestinian east. It came under criticism from conservative Israelis for “dividing Jerusalem”. Israel considers all of Jerusalem — including the occupied east — its capital.