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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

#281

Post by hrktb »

SECProto wrote: post #228
Thorrez wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

I’ve had changes go through, but sometimes in a monkey’s paw way.

I ask the labelling of a school on the map, specifying the name and providing the home town site as proof (a page listing all schools with their adresses and picture), and two days later it was labelled as “ school” completely ignoring the provided info and making the spot misleading. Requests for correction a few months apart didn’t do anything at this point.

So I can vouch for the process sometimes working, and I have nothing to do with Google. Now, why, when and how it works is a complete mystery.

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

#282

Post by jessaustin »

bumbada wrote: post #98

There is something I don't understand. A radiator is not necessary for a car to work, specially in a freezing place. A radiator is needed to refrigerate the engine. In a very cold place the engine is refrigerated just by natural convention. Probably you will have to stop and open the car hood from time to time. Without globes touching metal could be dangerous, but it is strange. Traveling to very cold places,what you…

A while back (probably last winter) I was driving a truck that needed a new thermostat, in what I thought was fairly cold weather. Reading TFA, I understand it wasn't really so cold. As long as the heater worked, I was fine. As soon as it started blowing cold air, I knew the thermostat had gotten stuck in the wrong position again. I figured out that I could simply slam on the brakes to solve this problem. In this fashion I was able to drive about 25 miles to a mechanic.

The truck had a functioning radiator and appropriate coolant levels. The only thing wrong was the thermostat. Even in that configuration, the temperature gauge climbed into the "danger zone" if I neglected the brake-slamming trick.

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

#283

Post by Rapzid »

Google the kinda map service that will route you through Valkenvania to save 2 minutes. Would I like to save two minutes?! Exit the freeway, take a million turns on unfamilair roads, and go through some po-dunk town that prob has a speed trap?! No thanks Google, that sounds like nuth'n but trouble.

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

#284

Post by PicassoCTs »

TheRealSteel wrote: post #271
Thorrez wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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've had the exact same problem, reported it, and been ignored. Not all of us work at Google.

The trick is to add keywords that make the issue "weight" more heavy. Suggest in your request for change, that this might open up google to liability

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

#285

Post by Twaway45609 »

rz2k wrote: post #157
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…

Have you tried looking at Open Street Maps? If your county's GIS and OSM both exclude their driveway, it might be easier to get Google to update. In my area, it sees like some of the driveways have turned into roads because of overly helpful contributors.

We live in a street named 'ms x of y' and someone renamed our street to y. As there was anither street called 'z x', deliveries were always going to the wrong street, or marked as invalid address.

Fixing it in OSM fixed it slowly in all drivers navigation systems and after a year no deliveries were lost anymore

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

#287

Post by flemhans »

fuzxi wrote: post #249
paulmd wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A very flippant "HN techbro libertarian" response. Pretty much everything that is not constitutionally protected as a right can be regulated, why would you possibly think that it couldn't? Yes, you absolutely could lobby for someone to write a law requiring Google to respond to nuisance requests from their navigation services. That is basically what DMCA does, after all. Hypothetical example law: OK, you have a good-…

Your response is unnecessarily aggressive. His questions are innocent.

I agree. And it resorts to name-calling. What's a techbro, anyway.

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

#288

Post by cerved »

paulmd wrote: post #247
Tostino wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had very similar fun in Costa Rica with my rental car and amazing Google Maps directions. Seems like a pattern.

Reading through this whole discussion thread it looks like the pattern is that Google Maps data is super sketch for anywhere that's not the continental US.

I believe it's fine in Sweden

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

#289

Post by sorisos »

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 believe you can get a lot of information from accelerometer data. Especially when compared with other data for the same road. Is it even used in this way?

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

#290

Post by LoSboccacc »

taurath wrote: post #178
zalebz wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the answer is to put up a gate with keypad and just provide the code to the landowner that has right of way. expensive but 100% effective.

The right answer is for the near-trillion dollar company to stop calling what is not a road a road I'd think rather than a rural landowner to have to go thru the expense of putting up a gate!

Maps have had errors since the dawn of them, yes, even the land registry isn't always right, and yes, even state as a whole sometimes can't agree on their border (i.e. France and Monte Bianco)

The right answer is for users not to be brainlessly following whatever their corpo device tells them to be the truth.

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