Apple map app leads Aussie drivers astray

Drivers in Australia were stranded in a national park for a day without food and water after being led astray by the Apple iPhone mapping application, according to police in the state of Victoria.

Maps on iPhones with the iOS 6 operating system list the northwestern Victorian city of Mildura in the middle of the Murray Sunset National Park about 44 miles away, state police said Monday in a statement. In some cases, motorists were stuck for as long as a day and walked long distances to get phone reception, police said.

Police are extremely concerned as there is no water supply within the park and temperatures can reach as high as 115 degrees Fahrenheit "making this a potentially life-threatening issue," the statement aid.

Emails seeking comment from Carolyn Wu and Fiona Martin, spokeswomen for Apple in Beijing and Sydney, respectively, were not immediately returned.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook apologized in September for the map software that has been criticized for flaws including misrouted directions and inaccurately located landmarks. Google Inc.'s maps were on previous iPhone models.