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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

#291

Post by LoSboccacc »

dawnerd wrote: post #253
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 why I desperately want a routing mode for 'easiest' drive. Surface streets only, no left turns onto busy highways just to save a minute, no weird shortcuts through neighborhoods, keep me on the highway. I've had so many times where google has had me drive through sketch areas of LA which ended up taking more time dealing with cross traffic. All they have to do is give up on quickest route.

Even roads that should be real are in different state of maintenance, there's some very bad roads here in central Italy, the likes that will tear a wheel apart from your car but due registration show white or even yellow on Google maps.

I do most of my intercity navigation trough state and road signage, with the navigator on but only for the last stretch, like driving me to the address once we're close.

Around here, "navigator shortcut" had already become a derogatory term for their inane suggestions.

There's some that provide a truck mode, but I don't know what weights they have on their algos.

Via Michelin used to have a main roads mode, but they didn't give turn by turn back then only planning.

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

#292

Post by Freak_NL »

emteycz wrote: post #269
dan-robertson wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think google don’t use OSM data.

Well and yet this is what I did and it worked, after around a year of waiting.

It is possible that whoever Google has hired for the local edits uses OSM as a reference in response to feedback received via Google Maps. Not explicitly of course, because this is strictly forbidden, both ways, due to license incompatibility. For OpenStreetMap this is a very important point, because well-meaning novice mappers copying streets or points-of-interest directly from a proprietary map put the project at risk of litigation. Google will likely have such a strong rule in their own internal documentation as well.

OSM strongly discourages the mapping of trap streets — fake streets that only exist on your map for unscrupulous competition to copy so you know that they did so — but it's possible that some mappers do put these on the map. I don't think one of the big proprietary maps has ever been caught copying one of these though.

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

#293

Post by PeterisP »

gruez wrote: post #216
diogenescynic wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What regulator would have jurisdiction here? Are maps even regulated?

Regulators get to determine what counts as a road and what is "just a trail" (it can be an important legal distinction), and they get to determine whether a particular road is public (even if it crosses private property), and in many places worldwide that official road map data is available from the government.

If that has been done, then it simplifies the dispute as you can objectively verify whether the complaint matches the official data and Google should not be routing cars there, or if the maps are correct and the appropriate solution would not involve Google - e.g. if a road is physically impassable then complaints to whoever is responsible for maintaining that road; if there are barriers or "do not enter" signs on a legally public road, then complaints to the authorities to remove these barriers and punish whoever put them up, if a path is marked public but you think it shouldn't be then legal action to try and correct it (which may or may not succeed), etc.

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

#294

Post by jmkd »

Thorrez wrote: post #250
Hydraulix989 wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Google is anything like other companies, internal employees' own support requests are prioritized, even on external-facing channels.

That would require you to create some association between your personal and work account right? I don't remember doing that. I guess they could match on first name and last name equality, but that sounds like a bad idea due to name collisions and impersonation.

Before you start working at Google and get an internal email address you have almost certainly communicated with HR using your external email address...a basic profile has been setup etc

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

#295

Post by maratc »

Thorrez wrote: post #250
Hydraulix989 wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Google is anything like other companies, internal employees' own support requests are prioritized, even on external-facing channels.

That would require you to create some association between your personal and work account right? I don't remember doing that. I guess they could match on first name and last name equality, but that sounds like a bad idea due to name collisions and impersonation.

I ... don't get it.

You say you work for Google, so you must know that the company you work for amasses huge amounts of information on billions of people on the internet. It then uses that information to sell personalized ads to these people. Advertisers love that, and they pay the rates, and that's how Google makes money for your paycheck — and much more.

What makes you think they "require" any action on the part of these people to "create associations" between accounts? They are making billions by doing it because they can.

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

#296

Post by dkdbejwi383 »

kilroy123 wrote: post #263
dawnerd wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why I desperately want a routing mode for 'easiest' drive. Surface streets only, no left turns onto busy highways just to save a minute, no weird shortcuts through neighborhoods, keep me on the highway. I've had so many times where google has had me drive through sketch areas of LA which ended up taking more time dealing with cross traffic. All they have to do is give up on quickest route.

I agree 100% and this is a more serious issue in other countries. I've seen Google Maps lead you down some extremely dangerous areas just to save like 5 minutes. Yeah, there's a reason roads in that area are so open.

It’s another example of unintentional bias at play. Most “Googlers” living in safe, well-maintained suburban USA assuming the rest of the world is the same.

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

#297

Post by noja »

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…

If you want a solution for this today: put up a sign, with a google maps logo on it saying "wrong way" in big letters, below it explain that google have wrongly marked this trail as a road.

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

#298

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#299

Post by travisoneill1 »

meowster wrote: post #233
colejohnson66 wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

What are the monetary damages, and how can you prove Google caused the damage?

Just make it up. This will never go to trial. Google's lawyers will see that the plaintiff is correct and make the change in maps.

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

#300

Post by sabas_ge »

Freak_NL wrote: post #292
emteycz wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well and yet this is what I did and it worked, after around a year of waiting.

It is possible that whoever Google has hired for the local edits uses OSM as a reference in response to feedback received via Google Maps. Not explicitly of course, because this is strictly forbidden, both ways, due to license incompatibility. For OpenStreetMap this is a very important point, because well-meaning novice mappers copying streets or points-of-interest directly from a proprietary map put the project at r…

Not trap streets but details (like small ponds in private areas) and misspellings were reportedly taken ispiration from over the years... :-)
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