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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

#311

Post by klik99 »

Thorrez wrote: post #257
thraway12 wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"That would require you to create some association between your personal and work account right?" Obtuse af. Is this default assumption that the user is the one who has to "create" associations in the company's systems based on anything? The big tech cos have been social mapping since before 2012 and they undoubtedly register when two accounts use the same IP.

So if I work from a coffeeshop all the other coffeeshop patrons would be considered Google employees? Creating a system to secretly map my work account and my personal account in order to prioritize my Maps suggestions seems like a huge amount of work for no benefit whatsoever.

It’s not a conspiracy theory, it’s a very real thing that all the major players do and a bunch of 3rd party startups as well. Logging in from same browser, showing similar habits on the same IP from home, etc. it’s typically part of data enrichment. I worked on a project that tied into a system like this about 5ish years ago and it was fascinating how deep this goes. I thought I was just not on top of things but now I see a google employee also in the dark about it. This feels like one of those things 5 years from now will create a scandal when a journalist wraps their head around what it is

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

#312

Post by outadoc »

hrktb wrote: post #281
SECProto wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 thi…

Afaik, the naming of locations is peer-reviewed automatically and by Google Maps users (they have the Local Guide program for this), but actual road changes are a different process.

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

#313

Post by gwd »

nitrogen wrote: post #224
jonah wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I've done this sort of thing before manually routing based on OSM maps.

A friend of mine and I rented a AWD vehicle to be able to drive on the "F roads" in the internal part of Iceland, which is beautiful but very desolate. (I'd be surprised if the inspiration for Mordor didn't come from some places Iceland in fact.) I had downloaded the OSM maps on my tablet and was just manually plotting routes that looked like they could be interesting.

It was great fun, but it sort of turns out that there are F roads and there are F roads. Some of the roads are fairly flat, easy to pick out, and you see a car at least once every hour. Some of the roads... well, one road went steeply up, then without warning into what was basically a giant sand bowl half a mile in diameter. We were in the "bowl", with sand who knows how deep (deep enough that the car had trouble making forward progress) before we knew what was happening. In the middle of nowhere, with no cell signal and not having seen anyone for hours.

Thankfully, by turning around and just keeping the accelerator on, we were able to build up enough momentum to get back over the ridge by which we'd come in; but it was definitely a close shave.

I could imagine the same story as TFA happening with OSM maps.

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

#314

Post by bamboleo »

kjs3 wrote: post #96
bamboleo wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s the data, not the developers.

Says every bad developer ever.

Wow the stupidity of HN commenters. Do you really think that Yandex developers minutely picked the route between 2 points or PERHAPS the shorter road in question was marked as impassable by whoever punched its GPS coordinates in the database? Do you really think developers take care of the whole product from start to finish? I pity your coworkers.

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

#316

Post by bamboleo »

ed25519FUUU wrote: post #26
bamboleo wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s the data, not the developers.

I can’t wait to use this excuse when my project fails in some spectacular way.

Sorry to hear that always happens to your projects. Maybe you should change career.

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

#317

Post by jlangenauer »

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.

It shouldn't be up to people to have to spend time and money to correct Google's errors, and to stop Google inconviencing them. Somehow, it has become completely accepted for Google/FB/et al to make profits while shifting costs and externalities onto society.

Why do we allow these tech giants to treat us so disgracefully?

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

#318

Post by progre »

smichel17 wrote: post #212
Talanes wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even a gate with just a rope latch would give most people pause.

Or even a "private property, no trespassing" sign.

People where I live are illegaly putting such signs up even if the road is public to limit trafic near their homes. I just ignore those.

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

#319

Post by cute_boi »

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.

A typical facebook/google employee defending his company. Common is it that hard to link whether its same or different people? The people who use same browser, ip , same habit etc can easily be guessed right?

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

#320

Post by FerretFred »

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 [*] support thing but no response and deaf ears

Seems to be the Google way of doing things: they can't do everything with algorithms!

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