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Google Maps changes a route after the drama of young people lost on a ghost road

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Re: Google Maps changes a route after the drama of young people lost on a ghost road

#31

Post by topspin »

dr_orpheus wrote: post #10
random5634 wrote: post #3

Here's a link with an image of the highway of bones: https://elpais.com/internacional/2020-12-23/perdidos-en-la-t... Here is a video of a drive along it between the cities mentioned in the article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J46vglp6g98 Insane cold in this area - I'd be curious what type of preparation they had for this, and why not turn back if things were impassable? Google in the USA maps lots of roads that a…

From this link posted in another comment it says "The two travelers - not dressed for extreme cold - evidently took a wrong turn and their car got damaged". So it does not seem to be because google suggested the incorrect route. https://siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/tragedy-in-yakut... Edit: It was pointed out in the comments below that Google maps does go on the correct route now. It is the same general road,…

2000 km of ice covered road in one of the most remote places on Earth. People freeze to death on well traveled highways, never mind Kolyma; a place legendary for its lethality. I suppose it's fine that Google is making refinements to obscure routes, but understanding the fate of these people is better informed by Darwin's insights than anything happening at Google.

Re: Google Maps changes a route after the drama of young people lost on a ghost road

#32

Post by throwaway0a5e »

random5634 wrote: post #3

Here's a link with an image of the highway of bones: https://elpais.com/internacional/2020-12-23/perdidos-en-la-t... Here is a video of a drive along it between the cities mentioned in the article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J46vglp6g98 Insane cold in this area - I'd be curious what type of preparation they had for this, and why not turn back if things were impassable? Google in the USA maps lots of roads that a…

It's not a real highway anymore and there are some bridges out but the road is still used by local traffic (mainly heavy trucks and 4x4s that can more easily ford the rivers). It is more passable in winter because the rivers can be driven across and there is more ice and less swampyness.

Several people have done the road and other remote dis-used highways on motorcycle (in summer/autumn when it's more difficult but the weather is less brutal). The AVrider forum has several threads with lots of pictures.

Traveling these kinds of roads is common in this part of Russia. I would bet money that they had driven the "correct" route before and then when Google said the old road was faster they knew exactly what they were getting into and figured they'd give it a try because it might save time. Their mistake was not being prepared.

Re: Google Maps changes a route after the drama of young people lost on a ghost road

#33

Post by KingMachiavelli »

Although some sources say the rode is in disuse, this documentary says it is an active supply route [1]. The road looks fairly maintained.

Considering both cities are some of the coldest in the world and the journey is 2000km, this really seems to be the result of poor planning. Part of the road contains driving over a frozen river, perhaps map apps should alert on crossings like this?

What's more interesting is that the vehicles that travel this road seem to not be in super great condition and for some reason I did not see any instance of chains.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzoYy-j1snY

Re: Google Maps changes a route after the drama of young people lost on a ghost road

#34

Post by hirundo »

Travelling from Durango Colorado to Reserve New Mexico, Google Maps routed me to a "road" that was simply a dry stream bed, in the middle of Navajo Nation, in high desert wilderness, many miles from human habitation.

It happened gradually. First I was directed to a well maintained gravel road, then to dirt track, which forked and forked and slowly faded to nothing.

I was driving a 4x4, had an almost full tank, a load of groceries and 12 gallons of water in back, and plenty of time, so I went with it for quite a while. There are lots of long dirt tracks in this area and I kept hoping that it was still a short cut. The shortest alternate route was around 90 minutes longer.

I think most sane drivers would have bailed at the first turn off of the pavement. I waited until the stream bed sand was getting deep before turning around. For some optimistic mobility impaired person it could have been a death trap. I've adjusted my expectations of Google Maps accordingly.

Re: Google Maps changes a route after the drama of young people lost on a ghost road

#35

Post by marcinzm »

When I was vacationing in Portugal Google Maps consistently sent us down the narrowest two-way single-lane roads that existed. Even after I explicitly picked the saner route it kept rerouting onto the steering wheel death grip roads.

Re: Google Maps changes a route after the drama of young people lost on a ghost road

#36

Post by jdtang13 »

In all my years of using Google Maps, I have never seen any message like "we cannot recommend a route for the destination you have selected". Considering that human lives are at stake, the product owners should be more generous to acknowledge their lack of knowledge rather than cobbling together a route using outdated information.

It is completely conceivable for an app to say: "we don't know, please use a different app" -- it's just pure greed for user engagement that prevents owners from doing this.

Similar life-and-death situations have happened in the past with Google Maps users in Middle East.

Re: Google Maps changes a route after the drama of young people lost on a ghost road

#38

Post by ogre_codes »

jeffbee wrote: post #7
hpoe wrote: post #5

TL;DR there is a road that goes through a really cold part of Russia (and we mean cold for even Russia). 2 young men were driving on it and their car got struck by a tree branch so it stopped working. One froze to death before help arrived the other is in critical condition. The article appears to be almost devoid of information about Google.

Indeed, paper maps have killed people in the exact same way, like James Kim who drove up a forest road in Oregon, became snowbound, and died.

Paper maps don't recommend routes.

Re: Google Maps changes a route after the drama of young people lost on a ghost road

#39

Post by notyourwork »

jeffbee wrote: post #7
hpoe wrote: post #5

TL;DR there is a road that goes through a really cold part of Russia (and we mean cold for even Russia). 2 young men were driving on it and their car got struck by a tree branch so it stopped working. One froze to death before help arrived the other is in critical condition. The article appears to be almost devoid of information about Google.

Indeed, paper maps have killed people in the exact same way, like James Kim who drove up a forest road in Oregon, became snowbound, and died.

The difference is you had to map your own route from the paper map. Now Google is suggesting the "best" route so its easy to blame this corporate entity and not the person who chose to follow instructions.

Re: Google Maps changes a route after the drama of young people lost on a ghost road

#40

Post by s0rce »

jdtang13 wrote: post #36

In all my years of using Google Maps, I have never seen any message like "we cannot recommend a route for the destination you have selected". Considering that human lives are at stake, the product owners should be more generous to acknowledge their lack of knowledge rather than cobbling together a route using outdated information. It is completely conceivable for an app to say: "we don't know, please use a different…

There are lots of obvious and not so obvious places where routes can't be calculated, for example, when asking for driving directions across the Darien Gap: "Sorry, we could not calculate driving directions from "San Francisco, California" to "Bogota, Colombia"" Although in theory you may be able to make it across by motorcycle overland, there aren't any roads and as such google maps doesn't plot a route through there.
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