My dad uses Google Maps, and he mentioned that it seems to be getting worse. Like, giving him directions that are obviously worse than alternatives. Has anyone else here experienced this?
It’s definitely been getting worse. The written directions aren’t always accurate. Exits sometimes have the wrong label. Lanes are missing on the highways when they merge and separate.
I’ve also seen a similar thing with routes not always showing up or giving bad directions. It attempted to take me through a school bus barn and even through someone’s yard once.
Am from Malaysia and since the road and street is named using local language(bahasa malaysia), google now read out the full road name in terrible accent and pronunciation it took 3 or 4 times longer to finish an instruction readout, which in some case you will miss your turn. The instruction sometime couldn’t even fit on the UI because the road name is just so long. It also read out which lane you should take just for turning. Before the change i can easily navigate the confusing city of Kuala Lumpur because the instruction is clear and concise, now i have to fight with the instruction because 3rd quarter of the time it’s a language i can’t recognise due to the terrible pronunciation.
Ohh did i mention the ads? They found a way to sneak ads into navigation. Now if you want to turn left 500m ahead, instead of telling you “turn left” , they will tell you to turn left after “xyz shop”. Now you will be looking for that shop instead of turn left. The app is maintained by techbros that never drive
Organic Maps and OsmAnd is better.
Do you know if either of these incorporate traffic conditions?
as they are privacy focused and have significantly fewer users, not yet.
but, the more users contributing and making requests, the sooner it could be integrated.
you can help by being one of those users!
I was in New Mexico recently and Google Maps gave me a route from Bandelier National Monument to Santa Fe that included a “shortcut” through the Los Alamos National Laboratory campus. I got to meet a security guard.
So, yes. I would say I have experienced this.
I just took a trip and the estimated arrival time assumed I would drive 15mph over the limit without stopping the whole way.
I hate that “feature” so much. For a while it has used the speed of other’s phones for your ETA. As in, if everyone is doing 10-15 over the speed limit, you’re expected to go with the flow.
I don’t want a more accurate ETA. I want to arrive when it says I will if I follow all speed limits, and shave off a couple minutes if I am going faster than that.
I use google maps every day. Wouldn’t say it’s been getting worse.
Makes sense. Google has been replacing skilled engineers with tail-eating AI regurgitation engines, which are getting progressively worse as they eat their own shit.
But I’ve been told those regurgitation engines are about to get really smart and replace all skilled labor.
So maybe it’ll be fine.
Or maybe, as we’ve already started to see, more and more useful stuff will only be available via the Internet wayback machine, until they kill it.
Google/Waze will volunteer users to take alternative routes to scout out ways around congestion. It can be a better route, but you are the guinea pig, so you can get the short end of the stick.
There also is learned driving habits that may inform routing choices.
No indication except for knowing the area and being sent a strange way that doesn’t make sense to you.
The routing is ambivalent to advertising money. The driving data they sell informs where advertisers put money. Horse, then cart; not cart, then horse.
I’d day yes. Earlier this week, it navigated me, and I assume a metric ton of people through road construction. Took me over an hour to get to My destination. There’s no chance that was actually the fastest route. 0 chance road construction and stalled cars was faster than literally anything else
Yeah, twice this month. It’s taken me through a dirt road (where we got stuck in the mud) and a closed road. Its also told me to turn at places where I cannot or where I must not. I’ve also checked that the car directions are selected and not “bike” or something else.
A few weeks ago I talked with a big truck driver and he said that Google maps sent him through a mud track. At the end the truck got stuck between two village houses. He lost one our to get out with the help of several neighbors. Its time to change to “Organic maps” or Osmand.
I tried organic maps once and it told me to do a u turn as the last instruction in the route, when I actually needed to turn right into my destination. I rarely drive these days but I’ll definitely try it again to see how well it does.
If you see this type of issues you can open a note in OpenStreetMap (register not required). One of the OpenStreetmap volunteers will fix the issue. Take a look at https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Notes
Thanks, good to know!
Time to switch Gmaps to Organic Maps or Osmand. Both free and with offline navigation.
Oh cool I’ve never heard but installed them from fdroid just now
I’ve actually been having more trouble with Apple Maps lately.
My last trip was to perform at a country fair type thing and it couldn’t locate the venue. So I thought maybe if I put on the satellite view, I could spot it and drop a pin? But the whole area was behind a cloud. Wow.
Then later, when we were returning, it tried to send me on a shortcut through a mall parking into an overgrown field.
Mine is fine, but somehow my wife’s gives her the worst possible routes that are counter intuitive. We checked all settings about avoiding / not avoiding tolls, ferries, etc. She just some gets crap directions.
Wow, that’s strange. Have you tried comparing the routes it gives you to the same places, side by side?
Does it give her bad directions on one device or everywhere she is signed into Google?
Yes. It’s hard to make out the map with all the pinned ads sometimes, and I’ve had multiple times this year where it has taken me to the wrong place. Every time that happens, I boot up Organic Maps and get right to my destination.
Lolwut? Didn’t realise they were serving ads on maps too, that’s hectic
You know how you can see pinned restaurants with their name and a fork and knife icon? Businesses can pay to show their full logo and get priority in search results/what shows first on the map as you zoom in.
Google has sent me through toll roads multiple times with avoid toll roads enabled.
I have a cheap iphone just for apple maps which hasn’t fucked me over … yet
I am always an “avoid tolls” kind of person. I use Google maps a lot and have never had an issue with this.
But just the other week, I was coming back from a road trip and it kept trying to make me use a rolled expressway!! Wtf!! I even triple checked my settings. I don’t understand wtf is up with that
Just avoid Australia, you’ll be fine.
But Doctor, I Am Pagliaccidespite living here believe me I try
