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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

#191

Post by netsharc »

Exmoor wrote: post #120
jonah wrote: post #114

As a tale of people in over their heads, over reliance on maps, taking the wrong road and not knowing when to quit and turn back in the American Southwest (which then turns into an international situation and doesn't have closure for 14 years) Tom Mahoud's The Hunt for the Death Valley Germans[1] is an epic and worthwhile read. It has lots of great stuff about lost person psychology, search strategy, persistence, loc…

I will always upvote this link. The entire site is incredibly interesting. I believe it's made the frontpage a few times with some interesting comments IIRC.

The last time I saw it featured on HN he took his site "down" by putting everything behind a basic auth requirement...

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

#192

Post by colejohnson66 »

slickrick216 wrote: post #126

Google maps has marked my parents in laws drive way as a road. The drive way is quite long as they are on a farm. Due to a right of way for an owner of a field who owns an enclave within their land they can’t put a gate up. It’s quite unmistakable you are going into someone’s house though. This has led to countless individuals showing up and driving through their land past their home. Lots of people stop and ask for…

IANAL, but would it be possible to sue Google (in small claims) over the nuisance?

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

#193

Post by richardcrossley »

KMag wrote: post #162

In Hong Kong, it's nice that Google maps has some hiking trails, but it has no notion of trail quality. Hong Kong really has some great official hiking trails with markers every 1 km, mostly dirt, but with some concrete sections. Google maps also has some very questionable routes, with no indication that you're going to be blazing a trail through 6-foot high brush or scaling a rock with help of a very sketchy rope co…

The HK Government produces some excellent paper maps that have a water resistant coating.

I bought mine in the General Post Office in Central, near IFC. There's also the maps shop at the junction of Nathan Road and Gascoigne Road in Yau Ma Tei, Kowloon

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

#194

Post by diogenescynic »

slickrick216 wrote: post #126

Google maps has marked my parents in laws drive way as a road. The drive way is quite long as they are on a farm. Due to a right of way for an owner of a field who owns an enclave within their land they can’t put a gate up. It’s quite unmistakable you are going into someone’s house though. This has led to countless individuals showing up and driving through their land past their home. Lots of people stop and ask for…

Submit a complaint to a state regulator. Someone at Google will wake up and sort it out once they get an email from their regulator to Google’s compliance team. If you can get a lawyer to submit the complain it’ll be even more effective.

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

#195

Post by netsharc »

jonah wrote: post #114

As a tale of people in over their heads, over reliance on maps, taking the wrong road and not knowing when to quit and turn back in the American Southwest (which then turns into an international situation and doesn't have closure for 14 years) Tom Mahoud's The Hunt for the Death Valley Germans[1] is an epic and worthwhile read. It has lots of great stuff about lost person psychology, search strategy, persistence, loc…

A similar story is the Kim family's disappearance and the death of the father, James: https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/STRANDED-FATHER-S-HEROIC...

He worked for CNET, and it was a big story back in 2006.

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

#196

Post by JasonCEC »

tomcam wrote: post #177
JasonCEC wrote: post #81

This happened to me in the jungles of Indonesia.. [0] I literally followed google maps and rode my motorcycle into the jungle. It started off a reasonable road and quickly became dangerous and then deadly. I rolled down the mountain side with the motorcycle and got very, very lucky that I was only mildly hurt (on top of the brutal sunburn I got on the ride). I ran into the local village (more like hobbled) and the fi…

Amazing story, and if your profile is current you have one of the more interesting jobs on HN.

It is, and I think I do!

We're doing well despite the pandemic; its been interesting to see how adoption of machine learning in consumer research has been accelerated during COVID because its no longer possible to gather lots of people together for tastings.

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

#197

Post by tra3 »

I've seen some russian 4x4 videos through that area and further up north. You never travel alone in case anything goes wrong. You _never_ shut off your engine because it'll freeze and you won't be able to start it without making a fire underneath it (or heating it in other ways). You insulate your vehicle (double pane windows, other insulation). That area is no joke. Poor kids.

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

#198

Post by jclulow »

mulmen wrote: post #134
nicoburns wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like the obvious solution to this would be a large sign at the entrance to the driveway.

There is no way the general public trusts a sign over Google.

Even if they trusted the sign, I have observed that people (myself included) often don't even _see_ all the signs when we're being directed by the GPS. I'd love to see a study on what changes about your perception when using a navigation system.

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

#199

Post by diogenescynic »

Wookai wrote: post #97
throwaway09223 wrote: post #64

I ran into a surprising problem with Google maps recently. "Ok Google, driving directions to Fremont Central Park" Google locates the park address as 40000 Paseo Padre Pkwy, Fremont 94538. The pin is dropped in a fine place, at the building by the Lake Elizabeth boat ramp. I mostly know where I'm going anyway, and as I come up Washington Blvd I notice it's asking me to turn early, so I follow just for kicks. Inexplic…

That's pretty weird, thanks for reporting this! I work at Google in the Maps org, I reported your bug internally and will update this once I have a resolution. In the future, if you encounter a similar situation, consider reporting it ( https://support.google.com/maps/answer/6194894 ). Any user feedback is greatly appreciated!

Why does Google not have these links accessible somewhere? It seems like you shouldn’t have to hunt through old forums to find the appropriate contact.... why can a Trillion dollar company not make this more easily discoverable?

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

#200

Post by mdoms »

tra3 wrote: post #197

I've seen some russian 4x4 videos through that area and further up north. You never travel alone in case anything goes wrong. You _never_ shut off your engine because it'll freeze and you won't be able to start it without making a fire underneath it (or heating it in other ways). You insulate your vehicle (double pane windows, other insulation). That area is no joke. Poor kids.

I'd love to watch these videos if you have a link handy.
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