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Google Maps Hacks

simonweckert.com

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Re: Google Maps Hacks

#381

Post by jrochkind1 »

KevinSorboFan wrote: post #347
jrochkind1 wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So I'm stuck in a traffic jam, and google maps is telling me I can take an alternate route to avoid it and save 25 minutes vs waiting in the traffic jam. Something that occurs to me as I sit in this traffic... what portion of all the other driver's around me also looking at google maps? Is Google Maps telling them to take the same alternate route as me? Are they all going to do it? If they all do it, does the alterna…

Somewhat related... Braess's Paradox. Take the toy example illustrating that paradox ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braess%27s_paradox#Mathematica... ) and an enlightened Google maps may do the altruistic thing of telling half of the drivers to stick on the upper route and half of the drivers to stick to the bottom route, but then some 3rd-party app will come along with the "shortcut" down the middle.

Maybe when all/most traffic is self-driving cars they could somehow be regulated to all use the same coordinated routing system without "cheating"... probably not.

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#382

Post by jrochkind1 »

londons_explore wrote: post #342
orijing wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consider another example. Google suggests an alternate route that will presumably save 15 minutes. Let's say enough cars take the suggestion to slow down that route by 10 minutes and speed up this one by 10 minutes. Even if you end up saving five minutes relative to the original estimate, you'd have saved ten minutes staying put.

It is a point of contention if Google should optimize for saving time for the individual user, (using data only available to that user), or for that user (but using routing information of other google users), or for all users on average (but potentially to the detriment of some users to give other users a bigger advantage), or for the public on average (ie. routing cars to reduce traffic, but possibly putting google…

I would say obviously the answer is that users paying for premium levels of service should get faster routes, isn't that how this sort of thing is done?

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#383

Post by fit2rule »

JCharante wrote: post #235
fit2rule wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My personal pet peeve: using the wrong language for the region. So, I'm a native English speaker - but I'm driving around Germany. Give me the names of the streets in German only - NOPE. Still can't find any way to fix this issue. Its terribly annoying.

What do the English equivalents look like? I do the same in Vietnam but I'd rather hear the proper pronounciation rather than a butchered one.

When a German street name is synthesised using English settings, its a proper butchering. Just not good at all.

I want the instructions in English - but I want the place-names in the native language. This is the only sensible way, yet none of the Maps vendors seem to have understood this. Do they not use their products?

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#384

Post by iggldiggl »

JCharante wrote: post #235
fit2rule wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My personal pet peeve: using the wrong language for the region. So, I'm a native English speaker - but I'm driving around Germany. Give me the names of the streets in German only - NOPE. Still can't find any way to fix this issue. Its terribly annoying.

What do the English equivalents look like? I do the same in Vietnam but I'd rather hear the proper pronounciation rather than a butchered one.

Semi-related anecdote: A few years ago, for a while Google Maps insisted on labelling White City (in London) as "White Stadt" and the M25 as "Autoroute brittanique M25" (and not just for French users).

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#385

Post by tinus_hn »

s0rce wrote: post #287
netsharc wrote: post #23

An interesting "red but no traffic" phenomenon is in Iceland, with roads which are next to scenery viewing points. The roads are mostly empty in this country, but everyone must've slowed down when they saw the breathtaking scenery, and would pull into the viewing point's parking spot to stop and take pictures. On Google Maps these areas were marked red. On another navigation related topic; I was using Waze in a high-…

There is a popular road in a relatively rural part of the SF Bay area for bicycling and on the weekends it appears to have traffic due to the slower speed of the numerous cyclists. There isn't actually more traffic. Google then sends cars on a winding narrow hilly alternate route.

This also happens with gas stations/parkings that are so near the main road they are confused with it.

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#386

Post by benhurmarcel »

fcbrooklyn wrote: post #189
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…

Another feature I want is "money is no object mode" when travelling around new york city. Sometimes it's fastest to take the subway, sometimes it's fastest to take a Lyft/Uber, but sometimes it's fastest to take the subway part of the way, and then take an uber from there. This last situation is really tough to figure out by hand with the existing tools.

In general there would also be a use for optimizing time vs cost.

In all driving apps you either take all tolls or none. It should be possible to optimize cost vs time saved, taking some tolls (which gain you enough time to justify their cost), but not all.

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#387

Post by benhurmarcel »

gbea42d4 wrote: post #129
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…

It's also important for these apps to consider if it's really legally allowed for the current driver of the current vehicle to drive on that street.

This is especially important in Europe where we are having more and more city centers reserved for inhabitants, or forbidden to polluting vehicles.

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#389

Post by 91aintprime »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #297
netsharc wrote: post #23

An interesting "red but no traffic" phenomenon is in Iceland, with roads which are next to scenery viewing points. The roads are mostly empty in this country, but everyone must've slowed down when they saw the breathtaking scenery, and would pull into the viewing point's parking spot to stop and take pictures. On Google Maps these areas were marked red. On another navigation related topic; I was using Waze in a high-…

So I'm stuck in a traffic jam, and google maps is telling me I can take an alternate route to avoid it and save 25 minutes vs waiting in the traffic jam. Something that occurs to me as I sit in this traffic... what portion of all the other driver's around me also looking at google maps? Is Google Maps telling them to take the same alternate route as me? Are they all going to do it? If they all do it, does the alterna…

one of my favorite properties of alternate routes is that when more people take alternate routes, it is possible that everyone's commute time increases, because low throughput local roads are filled over capacity.

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#390

Post by gbea42d4 »

michaelt wrote: post #356
dwighttk wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

do they have "how tall is your rental truck?" I had a friend I helped move and we had to deal with google continually routing us towards low bridges.

You can buy satnavs with that feature: https://www.tomtom.com/en_gb/sat-nav/truck-sat-nav/ and of course, many truck rental companies will also rent you such a sat nav.

Does it work 100% of the time? Is it mathematically disproven, that it won't fail on any occasion?

Is it mathematically proven, that every bridge is always appearing in the dataset after it is possible to drive underneath it? Or over it?

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