If you haven’t had your dose of the absurd for the day, get this – a California woman is suing Google for its Maps walking directions after being hit by a car, claiming the directions put her in unnecessary danger.

It’s actually difficult for me to write this without employing a constant stream of expletives but I’ll try. Laura Rosenberg wanted to walk from one place to another in Utah, the quickest route for which was apparently Utah state route 224, a rural highway. Rosenberg then gets drilled by a car, which sucks, but her response is to sue the company that gave her one of many possible routes, routes that she has the power to modify with a simple drag/drop, for the injuries.

The part that scares me, though, is that Google’s disclaimer – “Walking directions are in beta. Use caution — This route may be missing sidewalks or pedestrian paths.” – is not visible on mobile phones. I’d like to trust a judge to tell Miss Rosenberg to consider a lobotomy alongside her reconstructive surgery, but if history tells us anything it’s that ridiculous litigation has a home in the good old US of A.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

One of the most exciting parts of the Motorola Droid launch was the inclusion of Google Maps Navigation, a free turn-by-turn GPS system from Google. At first the feature was only compatible with phones running Android 2.0, which is only the Droid. Today Google announced that it would be moving the nav system down to Android 1.6, opening up the service to phones like the MyTouch 3G and G1.

I’d call this a big win for Android users. Until this update the hope was that some enterprising developer would hack the thing down to 1.6. This still leaves out the Motorola CLIQ and HTC Droid Eris, but hey, it’s better than the original situation. The 1.6 release also adds layers, allowing you to overlay information on the map, like Wikipedia articles on local points of interest and public transit lines. The one thing 1.6 is missing is the “navigate to” voice command, so you’ll have to enter everything by hand. Life’s tough, isn’t it?