Google Maps Hacks • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#241

Post by Thorentis » Sun, Feb 02, 2020, 10:29 PM UTC

AlexandrB wrote: post #115

Navigation apps have mostly settled into a comfortable state of "good enough" mediocrity. In addition to the "red but no traffic" problems highlighted by others I find turn by turn directions are incredibly annoying while driving in areas I'm intimately familiar with and there's no way to say "I know what I'm doing when I'm in this area" or "pause giving me voice directions for 10 minutes". Additionally: * I can't co…

Like others, I'm glad to see somebody else has noticed the turn issue with navigation. Minimising difficult turns (left/right depending on where you are in the world) across multiple lanes would be fantastic.

Many a time I've need to navigate somewhere fast, so even if I could've found my own way there I'll use Gmaps to find the "quickest" router around traffic, etc. Sometimes it works great, others I find I'm having to make a difficult turn across 4 lanes of traffic on both sides of the road, and I'm stuck there in peak hour for 5 mins waiting for a break. Google only optimised for distance and traffic I was in. (I.e. The traffic on both the roads was fast moving, but entering the fast moving traffic took a long time). Optimising only for the speed of traveling in traffic as opposed to entering it (from a turn) can cause this.

Another pet peeve of mine, is if you're doing a long distance road trip, you sometimes want to see where the next stop could be. That is, you haven't planned it, but your destination is set to somewhere 7 hours away and you'd like to stop within the next hour. There's no easy way to see where a good place could be. I want a "road trip" mode where you can bring up something a bit like those road side signs that tell you the distance to the next 5 towns or whatever. So on your phone you tap an info button, and get distance and time to the next x townships that are on your route or a short detour away.

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#242

Post by jmpeax » Sun, Feb 02, 2020, 10:35 PM UTC

Nition wrote: post #237

> Google’s map service has fundamentally changed our understanding of what a map is ... and how they look aesthetically. Paper maps used to look like a diagrammatic network of streets, with pale background and yellow for main roads, and our fundamental understanding of what a map is, was that it was a tool for navigation. Now with Google Maps, maps look like ??? and our fundamental understanding of what a map is, is…

Google Maps is not a tool for navigation, it is a tool to sell advertising to businesses. The same way a pig farm is not a b&b for pigs.

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#243

Post by Spooky23 » Sun, Feb 02, 2020, 10:36 PM UTC

ryanianian wrote: post #69

Spooky23 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This happens on NY 73, which is a road in the Adirondack High Peaks region between the highway and Lake Placid. It’s legit — even though cars are parked, you still need to slow down! I usually avoid Google maps for traveling in areas that I don’t know. It takes you off on stupid routes that save marginal time (if any) too much. Waze is good for interstate travel, but IMO Apple is better for giving you the “right”, lo…

This is my common complaint with Waze and most driving apps - they optimize for "least time," not "least anguish". I would almost always prefer to spend an extra 5 minutes on my "normal" route (that I have on auto-pilot) instead of saving that 5 minutes by taking confusingly-named side-streets with lots of left turns onto other busy side-streets. I don't know if Apple Maps really gets this any better to be honest.

The weird thing is that old school software like Microsoft Streets and Trips could do this pretty easily.

These map apps make a conscious decision to deliver this user experience.

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#244

Post by asdfasgasdgasdg » Sun, Feb 02, 2020, 10:37 PM UTC

wtracy wrote: post #182

asdfasgasdgasdg wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Expensive in time compared to benefit accrued/harm done. At a minimum you have to spend a person's time on it, both in the gathering of a bunch of used phones, the setting up of many phone lines, and the actual work of walking on the street. A small street seeming busy on Google Maps doesn't really matter that much. Especially, if the street is not actually busy, since that's kind of an indicator that people don't re…

It doesn't strike me as particularly expensive compared to getting thirty-plus bicyclists to go down the street in a block like the Critical Mass activists do.

Critical mass tends to target busy city streets, partly perhaps with the goal of causing actual congestion. I daresay it wouldn't serve as much of a protest if the entire goal were making Google maps look worse.

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#245

Post by payasr » Sun, Feb 02, 2020, 10:38 PM UTC

prashnts wrote: post #76

brian_herman wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have the code for your classification project? It would be great to see it on github or something.

I have it, not only the code but labelled dataset I created with an arduino, first, and then iPhone. It’s been a private repository forever, but thanks! I’ll make it public and Edit post the link down here. (Its not pretty though...) Edit: https://github.com/prashnts/MPU-9250 I have proper project reports I’d submitted somewhere for sure, as well. I’ll add it there in repo. I never bothered earlier. Edit 2: this was…

I enjoyed reading that, thank you!

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#246

Post by pastage » Sun, Feb 02, 2020, 10:39 PM UTC

ronyeh wrote: post #220

herenorthere wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There's no way to optimize for minimizing left turns, especially onto busy streets. Woah, I've never heard anyone else mention this problem. It sounds strange having it said "out loud" because I thought it was just a weird personal quirk/irritation of mine. I have always wished there was a route option of "easy mode driving," or "no pressure route." Often the "quickest" route google maps shows me is one that has som…

I've mostly given up on unprotected left turns onto huge streets (El Camino Real in my part of the Bay Area). I'd rather turn right and then take the next U-turn to get back to where I want to go. It reduces my social anxiety of people piling up behind me as I want to turn left, and it reduces my perception (right or wrong) of risk. When I turn left, I need to alternate looking left and right. When I turn right, I mo…

In many legislations you are supposed to cycle against the motortraffic, especially if there is a bikepath.

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#247

Post by stiray » Sun, Feb 02, 2020, 10:40 PM UTC

Has anyone tried using Maps? I don't think it solves the left turn problem, but I am extremly unhappy with google maps interface and pushing of ads. After a bit of searching I have found Maps and never turned back. Well, I hope it comes handy to someone else too...

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.github.axet.maps/

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#248

Post by pastage » Sun, Feb 02, 2020, 10:43 PM UTC

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #238

pixl97 wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do, and you should feel that way for a left turn. This is a behavior we normalize in a driving society. Being assertive as you turn left does nothing to reduce the impact of another car hitting you at 45 miles an hour (or even faster in more rural places). >A study from the National Highway Traffic Safety Association (NHTSA) shows that turning left is one of the primary causes of automobile collisions. 61 percent…

There's a line to be walked between his decently extreme opinion and your decently extreme opinion on left turns (yes, I know this is a potential middle ground fallacy). No you shouldn't barrel on into them but they're not as dangerous as your comment implies. As like most things driving as long as you have decent situational awareness they're fine.

Sadly no one is perfect, building roads that allow misstakes to safely be made is vital. See the road design vision of zero fatality. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vision_Zero

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#249

Post by madeofpalk » Sun, Feb 02, 2020, 10:46 PM UTC

AlexandrB wrote: post #115

Navigation apps have mostly settled into a comfortable state of "good enough" mediocrity. In addition to the "red but no traffic" problems highlighted by others I find turn by turn directions are incredibly annoying while driving in areas I'm intimately familiar with and there's no way to say "I know what I'm doing when I'm in this area" or "pause giving me voice directions for 10 minutes". Additionally: * I can't co…

> There's no way to optimize for minimizing left turns, especially onto busy streets.

I use Google Maps for cycling directions, and I get frustrated that I can't tell it to avoid big roads.

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#250

Post by toper-centage » Sun, Feb 02, 2020, 10:58 PM UTC

AlexandrB wrote: post #115

Navigation apps have mostly settled into a comfortable state of "good enough" mediocrity. In addition to the "red but no traffic" problems highlighted by others I find turn by turn directions are incredibly annoying while driving in areas I'm intimately familiar with and there's no way to say "I know what I'm doing when I'm in this area" or "pause giving me voice directions for 10 minutes". Additionally: * I can't co…

Google has recently started to tip its toes in something I've been wanting for so many years: mixing transit and cycling. But it's still mostly useless. For now Google suggests I cycle to the train and then take the train and then change to the subwat, and then walk the rest of the way. But what I want is to take my bike _inside_ the train with me, commute only in transit that allows bikes, and then bike the last mile.