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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

#221

Post by nitrogen »

ckdarby wrote: post #215
Triv888 wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google tracks all Android phones all the time, they should be able to see that no one uses that road, they just don't care.

Plenty of people with their Android phones will still go over that section with their snowmobiles, four-wheelers, bike, etc. How does Google tell the difference between someone on an electric bike vs a car going on a dirt road doing 20-30km/h to not have rocks flying everywhere?

I ran into this problem a lot when I was living in downtown SF of all places. One should never drive in front of AT&T/Oracle stadium when an event is ending, as the traffic is insane and part of the road is closed to allow for the mass of pedestrians. But Maps interprets pedestrian traffic as car traffic and shows that section of the road as green and moving faster than the sections with actual cars, and tries to direct you down it.

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

#222

Post by hodgesrm »

hirundo wrote: post #34

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…

Doesn't anyone know about Forest Service Maps? They don't cover deserts very well but if you are driving on backcountry roads in national forests it's kind of dumb not to have them.

https://www.fs.usda.gov/visit/maps

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

#223

Post by Triv888 »

ckdarby wrote: post #215
Triv888 wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google tracks all Android phones all the time, they should be able to see that no one uses that road, they just don't care.

Plenty of people with their Android phones will still go over that section with their snowmobiles, four-wheelers, bike, etc. How does Google tell the difference between someone on an electric bike vs a car going on a dirt road doing 20-30km/h to not have rocks flying everywhere?

> How does Google tell the difference between someone on an electric bike vs a car

With all the sensors in the phone, it is not that hard. There's a lot of research in that field...

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

#224

Post by nitrogen »

jonah wrote: post #116
hirundo wrote: post #34

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…

This is surprisingly common - a combination of target fixation and that hope that things will get better "just around the corner". People seem to be wired to push ahead instead of turn back and look for an easier route. I suppose a lot of exploration and discovery wouldn't have happened otherwise but then it's tempered by the numerous stories like the OP.

It's an old problem too. I vaguely remember seeing a driver training video made before I was born, warning drivers not to explore random "shortcut" dirt roads on their paper maps.

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

#225

Post by amerkhalid »

Thorrez wrote: post #201
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…

>I’ve done the whole google maps support thing but no response and deaf ears. You've used the suggest a change feature within Maps? I've done that several times and I think it always worked for me. Full disclosure I work at Google, not on Maps, and I always did the suggest a change with my personal account.

Another data point, and I don't work at Google. I had to correct a name of one road near us. I think it took only a week or so.

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

#226

Post by nitrogen »

gbh444g wrote: post #125
hirundo wrote: post #34

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…

Ha. I think I have an even better story. Near Salt Lake City there's something like an island with two roads connecting it to the mainland: one on the north and the other on the south. My plan was to drive to the island via its north road (paved and well maintained) and at sunset leave the island via the south road. I got suspicious when in complete darkness the rather narrow road across a weird desert-like substance…

Antelope Island is a fantastic place to visit! Glad you found your way back out, eventually. That southern end is very much not a road. Also, it's a good thing you were in a truck, as bison can be very dangerous. I used to hike there almost weekly, but significantly cut back once my brother was attacked by a bison and had to be flown out to a hospital.

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

#227

Post by adamjb »

Noumenon72 wrote: post #218
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…

How did the "they asked for nothing in return" work out? Maybe in their social currency being able to say you helped someone generously is worth more than some money?

Central Javanese culture is intensely non-confrontational so you can't really read anything into it.

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

#228

Post by SECProto »

Thorrez wrote: post #201
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…

>I’ve done the whole google maps support thing but no response and deaf ears. You've used the suggest a change feature within Maps? I've done that several times and I think it always worked for me. Full disclosure I work at Google, not on Maps, and I always did the suggest a change with my personal account.

> You've used the suggest a change feature within Maps? I've done that several times and I think it always worked for me.

I've had a road that is mis-named near me. I've used the "suggest a change" feature multiple times, but have never gotten a response other than the automated "it'll be reviewed". Road is still mis-named.

Other changes i've suggested have gone through in hours.

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

#229

Post by joehenriod »

Thorrez wrote: post #203
lostlogin wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

-70 degrees centigrade is cold. The appropriate equipment for being outdoors in that is not something I’d even start to be able to prepare for.

Are you saying it got to -70 C in the middle of Italy?

No, he is talking about Russia.

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

#230

Post by flatline »

Thorrez wrote: post #201
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…

>I’ve done the whole google maps support thing but no response and deaf ears. You've used the suggest a change feature within Maps? I've done that several times and I think it always worked for me. Full disclosure I work at Google, not on Maps, and I always did the suggest a change with my personal account.

I did this for the Railroad Museum in Baltimore, years ago, where Google Maps deposited you in a very poor part of the city on the wrong side of the property. It took about two years before I got a follow-up email and the listing updated.
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