The glitches that have plagued Apple Maps since Apple decided to do away with Google Data for its maps in iOS 6 are not exactly breaking news anymore. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case in Australia, where the local police authorities have labeled the app as potentially life threatening.

Australian motorists looking for the city of Mildura using Apple Maps, which is pictured above with the red pin, landed up 40 miles off target in the middle of nowhere, without food, water or cellphone reception. Apparently they landed up in the middle of Murray Sunset Natural Park which is an outback environment which offers little to no road side service.

The stranded motorists had to be rescued by emergency crews in temperatures that went as high as 46°C. Local police has contacted Apple with regards to this issue, and are hoping that Apple provides a fix soon. In the meantime, local folks traveling towards Mildura or for that matter, other locations in the Victoria region are being advised to avoid using Apple Maps as their navigation method.

I recently made a trip to a different city in India, and had to rely on Google Maps to reach a particular location. Needless to say, I was quite pleased to see that Google Maps placed me within 5 meters of where I needed to be. Wonder what point Apple wanted to prove with its proprietary maps, that too when everything was chugging along just fine till iOS 5.

Via Droid-Life