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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

#321

Post by hjorthjort »

Here's an adventure: https://strava.app.link/EYaQIX7uDcb

Generally, the best way to find bike routes in Japan (or most countries) is to ask Google for car directions and avoid highways and toll roads. But this time, it drove me straight into the radioactive danger zones of the old Fukushima plant. You were only allowed on those roads if you went by car, as a radiation shield. So I got stuck in a dead end, in a literal ghost town, trying to hitchhike. Man, I still remember the frustration and anger. Weird adventure.

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

#322

Post by ngcc_hk »

To be fair this is unlike the case of leading one to a cliff ... it is in Siberia and even if they are on the main road accident happened. Perhaps if other people passed by it helped but for up to -70c ... they have to prepare for exception.

Google has many faults. But the story is not totally one sided.

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

#323

Post by eisa01 »

rstarast wrote: post #302
dr_orpheus wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From this link posted in another comment it says "The two travelers - not dressed for extreme cold - evidently took a wrong turn and their car got damaged". So it does not seem to be because google suggested the incorrect route. https://siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/tragedy-in-yakut... Edit: It was pointed out in the comments below that Google maps does go on the correct route now. It is the same general road,…

For what it's worth, OpenStreetMap has a section of it as a "track" with "very_horrible" smoothness, but openrouteservice routes that way anyway: https://maps.openrouteservice.org/directions?n1=61.559148&n2...

No clue what is the most common routing service, but at least Graphhopper and OSRM picks the correct route

https://www.openstreetmap.org/directions?engine=graphhopper_...

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

#324

Post by redis_mlc »

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.

I can confirm that Google appears to import data from OSM.

I added a placemark in OSM in the middle of Bali, Indonesia for an Internet cafe a few years ago, and it's currently also in Google Maps. (The cafe has since been closed for a few years.)

What's interesting is that's why I added it to OSM - to get picked up by Google Maps. :)

What's even more interesting is that when I told people in SV that I was doing that, they told me since it was a copyright violation, Google Maps wouldn't do that. :) :)

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

#325

Post by roytries »

LoSboccacc wrote: post #291
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.

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,…

In the Netherlands we have signs like the one below. Telling you to stay on the highway and turn off your GPS. Because Google Maps and other software makes you take all these weird short-cuts. Putting trucks through small towns etc.. I think they also have them in Belgium.

(https://images.trafficsupply.nl/imgfill/800/800/i-114795-69c...

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

#326

Post by gpvos »

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.

Associating these accounts using data like IP address, cookies, etc. etc., over time, is core technology for Google and probably happens automatically. Whether they use it to prioritize Maps suggestions I don't know.

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

#327

Post by sigsergv »

Google Maps data for most parts of Russia are very inaccurate. Even in cities there are ghost roads, missing roads, missing buildings and so on. Sometimes it's very annoying because some taxi operators use google data and some places just cannot be addressed because they are missing in the database.

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

#328

Post by TomJansen »

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.

This. If you use Google Maps with biking it is even worse, with really inefficient turns and shortcuts

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

#329

Post by andi999 »

Bjartr wrote: post #202
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 been downvoted, but I think you have a point. Maps support & "suggest a change" are two different sets of ears, and while one may be deaf to this problem, the other may be more responsive.

Normal companies forward wrongly addressed requests to the correct department.

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

#330

Post by gpvos »

londons_explore wrote: post #301
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.

Google doesn't use Android phone location data as effectively as they could for privacy reasons. Tracking people's location in aggregate to make decisions about which roads are usable at which speeds is okay, but as soon as you get to the levels of "only one guy went along this road in 2020, should we mark it as private", it becomes a privacy issue. It's a privacy issue to use that kind of data, because the employees…

That fact in itself is a data point however.
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