Google Maps has been doing a lot of weird shit lately. I recently went on a road trip, going to a place I hit every year, taking my regular toll-less route, which is mostly 95.
G-Maps kept trying me to take new routes, which had tolls, and took LONGER. It tried to derail me at least a half dozen times, just changing my route without my consent. I had to stay on it every minute, even though I was driving.
I came to the conclusion that Google is cutting deals with states to shift people to toll roads, even if it takes longer. Probably getting a cut of the tolls. So it doesn’t matter which route you want to take, based on less mileage or fastest, they are going to prioritize the route that makes them the most money.
On the way back, I left late, after my event. I expected to drive for a couple of hours, take a nap, and finish. After a few hours, I realized that even though I had put my home address in, like I had a million times before, G-Maps decided I must mean a similar address in a different STATE, and in my tiredness, I didn’t realize it until I was crossing the border into the wrong state. I had to backtrack, and all that time was wasted.
What the fuck is Google Maps doing? That was just one trip. I’ve learned to stay on top of G-Maps. You can’t trust them at all.
I was on holidays last month and it really seemed to struggle on a number of occasions to give a decent result for”supermarket”, with some of the top results being thousands of kilometres away.
It’s been on a steady decline for at least 5 years now imo, ever since they introduced “fuel efficient paths” it kept choosing small roads with lots of stopping and starting at intersections instead of the bigger roadways where you can hold a constant speed… how that is more fuel efficient beats me
Geez, I hate it when they route you down those little back roads, where you have to watch for some poorly marked turn every 4 miles. It was exactly one of those stupid country roads where I hit a deer for the only time in my life, thanks to Google. Just put me on a highway, where I can zone out to some Pink Floyd and cruise.
They have also started showing “sponsored” locations as the first search result, often being ridiculously inconvenient and not at all what was searched for. For example I went to look for the Costco near me, and the first result was a Target nearly 20 miles away.
The Sponsored behavior is Google gaming their own ads business. Yesterday I searched “Lowe’s” and it shows two results for the same location, one sponsored above and the regular listing below it.
I want its opinion on traffic once - before I leave - and that’s it. Once I’m on the road, I absolutely do not want to hear its suggestion to change 3 lanes to catch this next exit.
Then you lose traffic updates. I use Wayze, and it suddenly switched and told me to take a turn and I followed it and neatly circumvented a jacknifed truck and probably a big delay.
I don’t want traffic updates. They keep changing my route to a complicated one I didn’t want, to save like 1 minute in theory. If I could change it to opt-in route suggestions instead of opt-out route switcheroos, then I might like that feature. I am not available to use the phone while I am driving the car.
I loved my old standalone GPS device until it was stolen.
Bro. That last part would have me livid. I can feel my blood boiling from that. I have made trips across states with only enough money for gas to get where I needed to be…if Google had did something like that to me during those times I’d be fucked without a paddle.
Yeah, I figured I’d get half way home, take a nap for a few hours and finish in the morning. Instead, I just took a nap, and did pretty much the entire trip in one shot.
It also meant that I hit a bad accident that caused about a 2 hour slow down, that I would have missed if I had been correctly navigated the night before. So my 5 hour trip ended up taking about 10 hours. Pissed me off for the entire trip.
I had it happen this weekend. Put in an address for an estate sale about 20 minutes away and it decided to give me directions to an address 20 hours away.
Over a year ago a new asian grocery store opened in my hometown and no matter how much I zoom on the map it just refuses to show up. It has 4.9 and 24 reviews yet still nothing, only by searching can you find it
After that, so did I. It used to be okay, you’d mark your route with no tolls, and that would be the end of it. Now they take it as a mild preference, because they have this expensive toll road for you, and it only costs $8 to go an extra 60 miles.
Google Maps has been doing a lot of weird shit lately. I recently went on a road trip, going to a place I hit every year, taking my regular toll-less route, which is mostly 95.
G-Maps kept trying me to take new routes, which had tolls, and took LONGER. It tried to derail me at least a half dozen times, just changing my route without my consent. I had to stay on it every minute, even though I was driving.
I came to the conclusion that Google is cutting deals with states to shift people to toll roads, even if it takes longer. Probably getting a cut of the tolls. So it doesn’t matter which route you want to take, based on less mileage or fastest, they are going to prioritize the route that makes them the most money.
On the way back, I left late, after my event. I expected to drive for a couple of hours, take a nap, and finish. After a few hours, I realized that even though I had put my home address in, like I had a million times before, G-Maps decided I must mean a similar address in a different STATE, and in my tiredness, I didn’t realize it until I was crossing the border into the wrong state. I had to backtrack, and all that time was wasted.
What the fuck is Google Maps doing? That was just one trip. I’ve learned to stay on top of G-Maps. You can’t trust them at all.
I was on holidays last month and it really seemed to struggle on a number of occasions to give a decent result for”supermarket”, with some of the top results being thousands of kilometres away.
That’s atrocious.
It’s been on a steady decline for at least 5 years now imo, ever since they introduced “fuel efficient paths” it kept choosing small roads with lots of stopping and starting at intersections instead of the bigger roadways where you can hold a constant speed… how that is more fuel efficient beats me
I wonder if they just go off speed limits and don’t know or factor in that the stop signs exist
Geez, I hate it when they route you down those little back roads, where you have to watch for some poorly marked turn every 4 miles. It was exactly one of those stupid country roads where I hit a deer for the only time in my life, thanks to Google. Just put me on a highway, where I can zone out to some Pink Floyd and cruise.
It can be, if you’re driving a non-ICE car and plan your driving. But still usually not worth it.
I’ve been using CoMaps for a few months and I love it. No google or apple bullshit
Looks promising, I’ll give it a try. I don’t mind ditching Google.
They have also started showing “sponsored” locations as the first search result, often being ridiculously inconvenient and not at all what was searched for. For example I went to look for the Costco near me, and the first result was a Target nearly 20 miles away.
that and the random ad shit popping up on the map are turning me off of Google maps. I’m not there yet… but I’m close
The Sponsored behavior is Google gaming their own ads business. Yesterday I searched “Lowe’s” and it shows two results for the same location, one sponsored above and the regular listing below it.
Once I’ve got a path plotted, I switch on airplane mode so Google Maps can’t throw me any curveballs.
the main reason I use navigation is for traffic, though
but if you know that’s not going to be a concern, absolutely a good idea
I want its opinion on traffic once - before I leave - and that’s it. Once I’m on the road, I absolutely do not want to hear its suggestion to change 3 lanes to catch this next exit.
Then you lose traffic updates. I use Wayze, and it suddenly switched and told me to take a turn and I followed it and neatly circumvented a jacknifed truck and probably a big delay.
I don’t want traffic updates. They keep changing my route to a complicated one I didn’t want, to save like 1 minute in theory. If I could change it to opt-in route suggestions instead of opt-out route switcheroos, then I might like that feature. I am not available to use the phone while I am driving the car.
I loved my old standalone GPS device until it was stolen.
Bro. That last part would have me livid. I can feel my blood boiling from that. I have made trips across states with only enough money for gas to get where I needed to be…if Google had did something like that to me during those times I’d be fucked without a paddle.
Yeah, I figured I’d get half way home, take a nap for a few hours and finish in the morning. Instead, I just took a nap, and did pretty much the entire trip in one shot.
It also meant that I hit a bad accident that caused about a 2 hour slow down, that I would have missed if I had been correctly navigated the night before. So my 5 hour trip ended up taking about 10 hours. Pissed me off for the entire trip.
I had it happen this weekend. Put in an address for an estate sale about 20 minutes away and it decided to give me directions to an address 20 hours away.
Over a year ago a new asian grocery store opened in my hometown and no matter how much I zoom on the map it just refuses to show up. It has 4.9 and 24 reviews yet still nothing, only by searching can you find it
I set mine to avoid avoid tolls permanently.
After that, so did I. It used to be okay, you’d mark your route with no tolls, and that would be the end of it. Now they take it as a mild preference, because they have this expensive toll road for you, and it only costs $8 to go an extra 60 miles.