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?
I haven’t had any issues with Google maps recently, occasionally it’ll try to take me on a more “fuel efficient” route. Recently my wife used apple maps and it took us to the wrong location, it kept trying to take us to Washington township when the address we entered was in Washington heights.
Fascinating, I’ve found better results with Apple Maps lately than Google Maps. Which blew my mind, because Apple Maps was a complete joke when it launched.
In our experience Google maps updates traffic conditions faster than apple maps. But Google maps tends to pick more routes that I wouldn’t consider the most efficient, ex: getting off the highway sooner and taking back roads vs going up another exit closer to the destination. But like I said we have had a few times where apple maps has gotten confused with places with similar names.
I’m always concerned about google maps because the alternatives suck, but google is making their services awful, one by one. I’m waiting for the day that google maps becomes terrible too. I do have openstreetmaps (using organic maps on android) and I fixed a few things about my local area there but it doesn’t have some of the features I’d like and it doesn’t seem like they have plans to add them.
Just as an example, business reviews. I can use yelp but it is nice that it’s right there. Also, the user submitted things like speed traps, accidents, etc.
Organic Maps and OsmAnd is better.
Does it save route history? Or destinations? That’s one feature I like with Google, disregarding any privacy concerns.
I use OsmAnd+ and you can configure it to save a track every time you use navigation. It can also send that track live to self hosted tracking servers. You need to enable the trip recording plugin.
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!
Thanks for the info!
Ive used those and their routing is not even close to Google maps
My biggest gripe with Organic Street Maps (and every OSM) client that I’ve tried is that I can’t find a way to display the destination address when I get close. I do some delivery work and that drives me crazy. Otherwise, it’s great.
Yes. I’m not the only one! Maps drives me crazy. As pedestrian it’s borderline unusable especially in European old Cities where there are … actual pedestrian only pathways.
Organic Maps is a game changer here!
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.
When AI gets applied to robot bodies, real world results will be able to trim out bad knowledge. Currently because AI only feeds on internet content, all the AI has to eat is human content and AI content.
AI will drift away from accuracy until it gets embodied at which point it will start to get more accurate.
Just have a nuclear reactor to run the LLM on the robot and you’re all set
Real world experience can help, but what we have now is also too stupid to recognize when it’s succeeding or failing. It just greedily gobbles up inputs and feedback indiscriminately.
There’s currently no way to know if the necessary advancement, to advance independently of humans, is 2 years or 2000 years away.
Even so, nature tells us that advancement probably isn’t coming at all. It’s not needed, so long as there are billions of humans available to partner with.
In the last six months, yes. It suggests short cuts that can create long delays. Shorter by miles, but often worse in the end.
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!
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
Every time I navigate with Google maps somewhere while someone else going to the same location uses apple maps, they have trouble and I have none whatsoever. It’s pretty consistently that way
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 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.
It’s been wonky lately. Maybe it’s just drunk?
Google consistently routes people to make a right turn across an unsignalised dual carriageway near me. (Australia, we drive on the left).
This right turn is so prone to crashes that every single weekday morning and afternoon there will be multiple tow trucks just waiting for a crash.
To avoid this intersection and turn right on to the dual carriageway at a location with traffic lights is only a matter of driving less than 1km in either direction on a parallel side street. Yet Google tells people to go past the traffic lights to make this turn. Idiocy.
to be fair, thats much more a failure of road infrastructure than it is of google, even if it could have done better.
This isn’t a new thing but I hate anytime it asks me a question. I’ll be driving through an accident scene trying to work out where the cop directing traffic wants me to go and if I’ll need to go a different way because the turn I was gonna make is blocked off and at that precise moment google maps decides it’s a great idea to cover the bottom half of the screen with a “is tHeRe sTiLl An aCcIdEnT hErE?”
If it’s illegal to use your phone while driving it should be illegal for navigation apps to suddenly require interaction in the middle of navigating.
I ignore those types of notices.
I use google maps every day. Wouldn’t say it’s been getting worse.
It’s been broken on Fx Android for the last few weeks. I mostly use it to cross-reference information lacking on OpenStreetMap (or if I need to see photos). It sucks since locally, the only maps businesses bother with is Google.
You should add the businesses to osm if you needed gmaps to get there
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.
