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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

#111

Post by beefbroccoli »

Enginerrrd wrote: post #95
inetknght wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think most sane drivers would have bailed at the first turn off of the pavement. Why? If it's an area unfamiliar to them then it's very reasonable to assume that Google might know it better than you.

Not for anyone that lives in rural areas. Trust me. I'm a consultant in a rural area in the PNW and Google maps is literally unusable to access 80% of my client's properties.

Living in Middle of Nowhere, New Mexico I was actually pretty surprised by how well Google Maps has worked. It knows my dirt/gravel roads pretty well.

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

#112

Post by IfOnlyYouKnew »

jdtang13 wrote: post #36

In all my years of using Google Maps, I have never seen any message like "we cannot recommend a route for the destination you have selected". Considering that human lives are at stake, the product owners should be more generous to acknowledge their lack of knowledge rather than cobbling together a route using outdated information. It is completely conceivable for an app to say: "we don't know, please use a different…

I’ve seen various warnings on walking or biking directions, as well as on driving directions using ferries or toll roads, or crossing borders.

So they are neither categorically opposed to warnings for any of the reasons you mention, nor are there technical difficulties. I guess the case of roads that are dangerous just happens to be extremely rare.

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

#113

Post by NDizzle »

It was a Garmin and it was 15 years ago, but it attempted to send me down a legit ski slope near Lake Tahoe. Good times. Like it sent you through the parking area and behind the club house and everything. I’ve been a skeptic ever since.

Then again, I got a land cruiser 3 years ago (with a 24 gallon secondary gas tank) so if a gps says to try something these days I usually do!

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

#114

Post by jonah »

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, local knowledge, and extremely remote areas.

Highly recommended.

[1] https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hu...

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

#115

Post by yborg »

latchkey wrote: post #65

I'm sorry for their demise, but I'm kind of a fan of this 'feature' of Google Maps. Before covid, I spent 2 years on a motorbike (scooter) going all over Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. I had some epic epic adventures into some deeply remote areas that I wouldn't have been able to find at all without the "help" of Google Maps giving me bad directions. One of which was following what looked like a normal road out of town…

Why would you need Google Maps for this? Start following a road in the general direction of where you are going and just guess on turns if you want an adventure.

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

#116

Post by jonah »

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.

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

#117

Post by manigandham »

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.

The biggest problem is blind trust in the system. This is how we get stories of people trusting GPS directions and driving straight into lakes.

Taking a few minutes to zoom out and check the actual maps in terrain view would save most people on these journeys.

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

#118

Post by sibartlett »

KingMachiavelli wrote: post #33

Although some sources say the rode is in disuse, this documentary says it is an active supply route [1]. The road looks fairly maintained. Considering both cities are some of the coldest in the world and the journey is 2000km, this really seems to be the result of poor planning. Part of the road contains driving over a frozen river, perhaps map apps should alert on crossings like this? What's more interesting is that…

They drove on an unmaintained and mostly unused segment of the Highway of Bones, called Old Summer Road.

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

#119

Post by NDizzle »

bitexploder wrote: post #104
Enginerrrd wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not for anyone that lives in rural areas. Trust me. I'm a consultant in a rural area in the PNW and Google maps is literally unusable to access 80% of my client's properties.

Caltopo and forest service roads are the best for last mile backcountry driving in my experience. Google maps is indeed really sketchy in those situations.

The app Gaia GPS has MVUM (motor vehicle use maps by the US forest service) that are outstanding. You can use multiple map layers at once. You can use the Caltopo plus the MVUM to see which areas are open and passable.

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

#120

Post by Exmoor »

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.
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