Is Google Maps getting worse?
My dad uses Google Maps, and he mentioned that it seems to be getting worse. Like, giving him directions that are obviously worse than alternatives. Has anyone else here experienced this?
My dad uses Google Maps, and he mentioned that it seems to be getting worse. Like, giving him directions that are obviously worse than alternatives. Has anyone else here experienced this?
Makes sense. Google has been replacing skilled engineers with tail-eating AI regurgitation engines, which are getting progressively worse as they eat their own shit.
But I've been told those regurgitation engines are about to get really smart and replace all skilled labor.
So maybe it'll be fine.
Or maybe, as we've already started to see, more and more useful stuff will only be available via the Internet wayback machine, until they kill it.
When AI gets applied to robot bodies, real world results will be able to trim out bad knowledge. Currently because AI only feeds on internet content, all the AI has to eat is human content and AI content.
AI will drift away from accuracy until it gets embodied at which point it will start to get more accurate.
Just have a nuclear reactor to run the LLM on the robot and you're all set
Real world experience can help, but what we have now is also too stupid to recognize when it's succeeding or failing. It just greedily gobbles up inputs and feedback indiscriminately.
There's currently no way to know if the necessary advancement, to advance independently of humans, is 2 years and 2000 years away.
Even so, nature tells us that advancement probably isn't coming at all. It's not needed, so long as there are billions of humans available to partner with.
Google/Waze will volunteer users to take alternative routes to scout out ways around congestion. It can be a better route, but you are the guinea pig, so you can get the short end of the stick.
There also is learned driving habits that may inform routing choices.
That's pretty interesting about the scout cars.Is there any sort of indication thats what they're doing? I will say given Google's track record I wouldn't put it past them to intentionally route traffic near where their paid advertiser's money comes from.
No indication except for knowing the area and being sent a strange way that doesn't make sense to you.
The routing is ambivalent to advertising money. The driving data they sell informs where advertisers put money. Horse, then cart; not cart, then horse.
So far... I can easily see some MBA wanting to add that "feature". They have your driving history, they could easily route someone with Starbucks stops past more Starbucks for a fee.
Yeah, twice this month. It's taken me through a dirt road (where we got stuck in the mud) and a closed road. Its also told me to turn at places where I cannot or where I must not. I've also checked that the car directions are selected and not "bike" or something else.
A few weeks ago I talked with a big truck driver and he said that Google maps sent him through a mud track. At the end the truck got stuck between two village houses. He lost one our to get out with the help of several neighbors. Its time to change to "Organic maps" or Osmand.
I tried organic maps once and it told me to do a u turn as the last instruction in the route, when I actually needed to turn right into my destination. I rarely drive these days but I'll definitely try it again to see how well it does.
If you see this type of issues you can open a note in OpenStreetMap (register not required). One of the OpenStreetmap volunteers will fix the issue. Take a look at https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Notes
Thanks, good to know!
Am from Malaysia and since the road and street is named using local language(bahasa malaysia), google now read out the full road name in terrible accent and pronunciation it took 3 or 4 times longer to finish an instruction readout, which in some case you will miss your turn. The instruction sometime couldn't even fit on the UI because the road name is just so long. It also read out which lane you should take just for turning. Before the change i can easily navigate the confusing city of Kuala Lumpur because the instruction is clear and concise, now i have to fight with the instruction because 3rd quarter of the time it's a language i can't recognise due to the terrible pronunciation.
Ohh did i mention the ads? They found a way to sneak ads into navigation. Now if you want to turn left 500m ahead, instead of telling you "turn left" , they will tell you to turn left after "xyz shop". Now you will be looking for that shop instead of turn left. The app is maintained by techbros that never drive
You've given me flashbacks. I lived in Japan for a few years and occasionally Google would go ahead and read out the street names in Chinese instead of Japanese as though Google maps doesn't have an exact GPS coordinate for me and thus a pretty good idea of what language those signs should be in. Drove me INSANE. Trying to get around and suddenly my gps is speaking to me in a language I don't know
I was in New Mexico recently and Google Maps gave me a route from Bandelier National Monument to Santa Fe that included a “shortcut” through the Los Alamos National Laboratory campus. I got to meet a security guard.
So, yes. I would say I have experienced this.
There's an option to prefer fuel saving routes, which are worse most of the time. This was a kinda recent chance and it is enabled by default, try to disable it and see if it helps
It does indicate the "fuel efficient" route pretty clearly though, and always gives multiple other options including the quickest one that isn't as efficient. If this is what's causing the issue, OP just needs to look closer at what's on their screen.
IT guy here. The number of tickets I could close with this as the root cause.
Honestly I wish you were able to. Some of these people have no excuse to be as ill proficient as they are, and maybe that would change if you could just tell them they 'read mother fucker' and let nature take it's course.
You expect me to READ!? The audacity! 😤
In my experience, the "quickest" are more fuel efficient than the "fuel efficient" routes, which take me through residential areas (where every intersection is protected, meaning a stop sign in at least 1 direction) or stair-stepping on county roads where the speed-up/slow-down cycle negates the benefit of driving on slower roads.
That's fair, although I think that depends a lot on the type of car you drive. There's an option to tell Maps what type of car you drive (electric, hybrid, or gas), which will change the results, because cars with regenerative breaking often get better "city" milage than "highway" milage.
It also probably depends on factors like how aerodynamic your vehicle is, because it makes a huge difference above ~50mph (air resistance/drag increases exponentially with speed)
Fun fact, they let you tell them what kind of vehicle you have for the fuel efficient route. So when we told it we have a PHEV, it started recommending more surface streets than highways. Kinda cool.
Interesting. I’ll let him know. Thanks.
This
Yes, it is. I use it every day to visit multiple locations. My personal pet peeve is when it displays "In 1.5 miles, continue straight". On a road where there's no changes in that distance. That's not part of the directions, that's just continuing. Not only is it unhelpful because I can't not do this "step", but I can't see the next, actual step, which could be "In 200 ft, turn left" and won't know which lane to be in.
I can't prove it, but I think at some point they applied an automatic algorithm that added intermediate steps to all their routing (for when a road curves a certain way, etc), but it was too aggressive and not human-reviewed.
I do a lot of highway driving. It'll frequently tell me "in X miles take the exit towards [whatever]" but it will refuse to tell me what exit number I'm looking for until I'm within a mile or two of it. This is frequently a problem when I have exits with A/B/C branches which is often. I don't give a shit if I'm exiting towards I40, just tell me I'm exiting on 13B, and tell me that from the beginning.
It used to do this, it changed a couple years ago, and I've been pissed off about it every time I've had to drive somewhere since then.
It'll also randomly change voices on me, it'll flip flop constantly between the American accent and a thick British accent. No rhyme or reason to it either, it'll be a different voice on the same turn on a different day. Drives me nuts.
That's... some different issues. I think your phone/vehicle/GPS might actually be haunted. Do you know of any exorcists?
There's a part of a highway near Denver where it'll tell you to take a "slight right to stay on highway", and there is literally no possible turn or off ramp there.
Woah, that's crazy. I was specifically thinking of I-25! Though it does it with other roads and highways as well...
I've seen it do that for decades now, and in at least two cases I see it happen is when a highway enters town and gains a name, like how Florida Route 92 becomes International Speedway Boulevard when you enter Daytona Beach. Or, when another route joins the corridor you're on, like throughout North Carolina US-1, US-15 and US-501 weave in and out of each other a few times along with a few state routes joining and leaving.
So I think when it hits points like this, it sometimes interprets them as intersections rather than junctions, and its programming requires it to issue a direction for an intersection. YOU might not see it as an intersection but IT does.
I don’t need any instructions at all at an intersection unless the instruction is to turn
Thank you. I'm not actually that old-school, but back in the day, the only directions that mattered were the changes. "Turn right on the dirt road, and follow it for about 35 miles. Turn right at the crazy magenta and black diner..."
That's exactly what it is. I just had this happen where two US highways merge, and it told me to "keep straight on HWY 20" at that location. You'll also often see this where two interstates merge for a while in and around cities.
A bigger problem I have than occasionally hearing "Keep straight on Highway 20" is "Keep straight on US-20, US-94, US-1, US-15, US-501, US-99, US-98, NC-24, NC-27, NC-17, PG-13, PS-5, N-64, I-95, I-85, I-40, Bragg Boulevard for 1.3 miles."
It puts the instruction at the beginning, and then it talks so long you forgot what it told you to do. It's how you stack overflow a human.
I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention. What were you saying?
This isn’t a new thing but I hate anytime it asks me a question. I’ll be driving through an accident scene trying to work out where the cop directing traffic wants me to go and if I’ll need to go a different way because the turn I was gonna make is blocked off and at that precise moment google maps decides it’s a great idea to cover the bottom half of the screen with a “is tHeRe sTiLl An aCcIdEnT hErE?”
If it’s illegal to use your phone while driving it should be illegal for navigation apps to suddenly require interaction in the middle of navigating.
I ignore those types of notices.
It's definitely been getting worse. The written directions aren't always accurate. Exits sometimes have the wrong label. Lanes are missing on the highways when they merge and separate.
I've also seen a similar thing with routes not always showing up or giving bad directions. It attempted to take me through a school bus barn and even through someone's yard once.
Yep. Multiple times I have had Google maps direct me to back employee only entrances instead of the regular entrances. Sometimes it seems like Google doesn't even recognize that the front entrance even exists.
I'd like to recommend 'Magic Earth' to everyone, who wants a privacy respecting Maps alternative with trafic data. I used it on several >500km trips and it only misguided me once. It uses OSM maps and can navigate offline.
The only real issue with OpenStreetMaps is that the quality varies significantly town-to-town depending on how much love it's had by local, knowledgable contributors. Road directions are one of the more complex things to configure in OSM, especially with complex multi-lane junctions, and so densely-populated areas and major roads are likely to be quite good, whereas more rural areas can be hit-and-miss.
Does it give you multiple options for a route? Like fastest/using least petrol/no tolls, etc?
I am currently using Google maps and waze most of the time and tried Organic maps for a while for a more privacy focused option, but it only gives you one option, no alternatives of similar length/time.
Edit: nevermind, just downloaded it and it does offer alternatives. Looking good as well, will definitely test it, thank you!
Seconded! It also has a more informative cycling interface.
You don't realize a 500km route you take once is shit. It's when the software sends you on a shit route across town every single day when you measure quality.
I've driven the same general route a few times and even then, it has been quite reliable. As mentioned, it can depend on the cities and stuff, so you're best trying it out for yourself :)
Gonna check that out for a trip next week, thank you!
Organic Maps and OsmAnd is better.
My biggest gripe with Organic Street Maps (and every OSM) client that I've tried is that I can't find a way to display the destination address when I get close. I do some delivery work and that drives me crazy. Otherwise, it's great.
Do you know if either of these incorporate traffic conditions?
as they are privacy focused and have significantly fewer users, not yet.
but, the more users contributing and making requests, the sooner it could be integrated.
you can help by being one of those users!
Thanks for the info!
Ive used those and their routing is not even close to Google maps
Does it save route history? Or destinations? That's one feature I like with Google, disregarding any privacy concerns.
I use OsmAnd+ and you can configure it to save a track every time you use navigation. It can also send that track live to self hosted tracking servers. You need to enable the trip recording plugin.
It coincides with their switch to more and more "AI" black box models. Whereas before they would use a hand-tuned heuristic model to describe whether you are turning, merging, or continuing on a road, they just use a less correct but automagic model where they still inevitably have to tune it a whole lot but it is "AI" so it has the approval of the petty lords of management.
Incorrect entrances and closed roads are another example. They're just using satellite and street level imagery and tossing it at some models that spit out things like "door 99% confidence" and "road 98% confidence" while neglecting the question of, "are you actually allowed/able to use this?"
PS under basically every correct answer in this category is a team of poorly-paid "labelers" whose answers directly turn into the data in the map. Your door-that-is-not-an-entrance was marked entrance because someone making $8/hr only had 10 seconds to review before moving to the next question.
Semi recently had mine try to take me through a private business parking lot which was entirely fenced off, and didn't even connect on the other side. That was... confusing, to say the least.
Google Maps is headed by Ray Kurzweil, who refuses to see any downsides to AI.
AI being a great thing is a postulate for this guy.
lmao the futurology grifter
I thought he was head of AI not maps tho
Personally, I’ve been seeing way more markers when you zoom in for bigger businesses meaning they are probably going heavy on pay to show.
Not to mention my saved places aren't permanent markers in the map. I'll zoom in, still can't see it. Search for it, oh look, there it is, right where I was zoomed in
Yep, one shape is paid for, the other shape is not (I forget, circles or squares), and to actually see the non paying businesses you have to zoom way in now.
They switched from giving you the fastest route by default to giving you the one that uses the least gas.
They also now offer alternative routes that take you past businesses which paid money to Google.
That's in your trip options "prefer fuel efficient route". You can turn it off.
I know. But I won't.
Hypermiling is as fun to me as driving fast is for others.
It's like a mini-game I get to play every time I'm forced to drive a car.
I hypermile casually but I’m not sacrificing travel time to save a bit of gas.
Ahh, I misinterpreted your post as a complaint. I'm not a hypermiler, but I do find the efficient routes are often the lowest stress routes as well.
I hypermile casually but I’m not sacrificing travel time to save a bit of gas.
Elites loves to treat working class time as a zero-value resource. It’s just assumed that everyone is willing to give up hours a week if it means using fewer plastic bags, or less gas, or taking a bus instead of a car, or charging their car during off peak hours, or whatever.
Time is treated as negligible in value.
Yes. I'm not the only one! Maps drives me crazy. As pedestrian it's borderline unusable especially in European old Cities where there are .... actual pedestrian only pathways.
Organic Maps is a game changer here!
Yes.
They will often display prompts while driving that are on a timer "suggesting" route changes or alternates and auto selecting yes.
To abbreviate massively and not dox myself, this caused me serious financial harm as a road trip rerouted onto roads unsafe for my vehicle.
I loathe Google and many tech companies for their sheer and ardent refusal to have proper customer service, or any method of customer feedback. A/B testing will never tell you that the top navigation directions should focus on the major high numbers and road names, not what road segment you are on. I need to know what lane to be in for my next turn in 5 miles, not how many times I will fade merge between segements only to have you finally tell me the lane when I'm a quarter mile away.
Google Maps is fucking awful in so many ways that are inexcusable, and worst of all they were allowed to fucking buy more of their competitors. Right now Magic Earth is a distant also ran in this field, and due to Google's massive proprietary features always will be without support.
And I haven't even mentioned how my map results are plastered with promoted ads and locations. Which is just useless and infuriating when I am searching for a specific placename.
Just like their search engine, making you scroll down further and potentially not even wanting you to leave their page, maps is trying to send you into the vicinity of more physically so you can go into their store and tell them that you found them along a route suggestion.
I don't think the above is true. At this point I'm just trying to give them ideas on how to enshittify it more.
Too late
Time to switch Gmaps to Organic Maps or Osmand. Both free and with offline navigation.
Oh cool I've never heard but installed them from fdroid just now
I just took a trip and the estimated arrival time assumed I would drive 15mph over the limit without stopping the whole way.
I hate that "feature" so much. For a while it has used the speed of other's phones for your ETA. As in, if everyone is doing 10-15 over the speed limit, you're expected to go with the flow.
I don't want a more accurate ETA. I want to arrive when it says I will if I follow all speed limits, and shave off a couple minutes if I am going faster than that.
How come it doesn't just know whether you tend to speed or not? Doesn't Google know everything about everyone?
That would be super awesome if navigation apps had profiles.
Like, when I’m driving my car I go the speed of traffic or maybe a little fast.
And when I’m driving my motorhome I go 65mph tops and really slow up hills.
But totally nobody does this. Even the RV Trip Wizard app (built around Here navigation) makes you choose between “I drive XXX speed on average” (ignoring actual speed limits and conditions, just assume constant speed) or just assume normal traffic.
Why can’t they recognize that different drivers drive differently???
Pretty sure it does, actually. If I look up a route and my partner looks up the same route at the same time both from within our house, mine usually has about a 3-5 minute faster eta.
It has gotten way worse for me in the past couple of months to the point that organic maps, even without traffic information is the clear winner.
One of the things I hate the most now is that the driving mode (you see a route and you're represented by a little arrow) is really zoomed out and does not rotate with you, making it a worse version of a paper map
For me it rotates the map randomly. It’s not a result of thinking that I’ve turned because my arrow marker stays oriented with the map. But it’ll just rotate the map to random angles at random times.
I know it's not new, but I've been seeing a lot more "suggested" (read: sponsored) places along my routes these days. Either businesses are just now discovering the feature, or they lowered the barrier for entry. Either way, it's annoying as fuck to have ads pop up that I have to avoid when moving the map around to navigate
It's an intentional move they've been testing. Looks like you're one of the "lucky" participants.
Mine is fine, but somehow my wife's gives her the worst possible routes that are counter intuitive. We checked all settings about avoiding / not avoiding tolls, ferries, etc. She just some gets crap directions.
Does it give her bad directions on one device or everywhere she is signed into Google?
She only uses a phone for everything, so checking on a computer login is not easy to do.
Wow, that’s strange. Have you tried comparing the routes it gives you to the same places, side by side?
Yes, it will reroute her to the worst possible wat to get somewhere, while mine will be direct. At first I thought she had bus or walking enabled, but it is set on car, and we have same route settings. I don't understand it, unless the google algorithm looks at your driving history or something like her phone GPS satellites used are different and somehow location info is different--even though the car tracks on the street possible.
That must have something to do with like A/B testing or something. Like she’s in the guinea pig cohort where she gets the “experimental” routes.
Maybe the answer, to see if routes are valid. They picked the wrong test subject though, she gets so frustrated she sometimes gives up on the trip. lol
The biggest complaint I've had lately is that it will randomly alter my route without letting me know when or why. More than one it has told me to turn when the route it showed me before I hit "start" did not have a turn at that point.
Yeah I’ve definitely been noticing this one a lot more recently. It won’t even give me an option anymore, just switch to another route even when the turn is less than a minute away. Sometimes if I’m driving through a town it will switch multiple times in a few minutes which is infuriating
Yeah, about 2 months ago I noticed it no longer recommending a slightly alternate route on my way to work that lets me bypass a potentially 20-minute red light (bad light timing)
If I turn and do it myself it goes "oh shit you right" and gives me an updated ETA and shows the route, but it WONT show the expected slowdown anymore and WONT even suggest the alternate route
Does route calculation happen on device or on Google servers? Is it cheaper for Google to not show alternate routes?
I assume the route calculations happen on device as they work in offline mode, but that doesn't explain sending me the objectively slower way when it knows what the traffic is like
Also my alternate route passes more businesses, meaning it's not some "well advertise to him" bullshit
I turned OFF the "prefer eco routed" setting thinking it might be that, but no dice
Yes. I know this is like.. Cliche but I do want to say that I've heard of, and downloaded a new map app called Organic Maps(Play Store). BUT I haven't used it for navigation yet.
About two days after I found it, play store deleted it but I can link it, so it must be back up. If you just open it, it looks beautiful and immediately you notice that stores are not paying money to be prioritized. You can see ALL the businesses equally and I love it.
I love Organic Maps. I used it quite a lot for navigation across Europe and here's my list of findings in order from good to bad
Now, if it wasn't for this last point, I'd use it over Google Maps every time. But the battery consumption is so bad that I only use it if I know that I can reliably charge my phone throughout the trip.
I wasn't able to install from the Play Store, but it's on F-Droid too.
It's great with navi, its also great at finding businesses, even offline.
Organic has saved my tail a few times in state parks where I didn't have cell service. I tell everyone I know to install it just in case of emergency.
It can be more up to date, or out of date depending on the area. I pair it with Street Complete, which makes it easy to update info, or notifies you information you could provide.
Yes. I don't recall which community posted it and when, but Google is adifying their Maps. They literally have sponsored routes planned that will go out of their way to promote paying businesses.
Google is doing a lot of A and B testing right now. Some days I habe to use Bing or duckduckgo, no matter what, or else I get shit results.
Apparently everyone ITT has had 100 times more trouble with Google maps than I ever have had. Seriously entire categories of problems I've never experienced. Google maps has never tried to make me drive through a yard or field for example. Been using it since before it was a smartphone app.
It's been discussed in other comments that because Google is A/B testing their old maps model against a new AI model that only some people are experiencing it. It's probably only being tested in some areas.
Did someone complain about that? I’m seeing tons of complains and none of them are this
Yeah ITT I saw someone say it tried to take them through a field and a barn, and someone else said someone's yard. I thought it was weird.
I'd day yes. Earlier this week, it navigated me, and I assume a metric ton of people through road construction. Took me over an hour to get to My destination. There's no chance that was actually the fastest route. 0 chance road construction and stalled cars was faster than literally anything else
In my experience, google maps is really bad at finding parking. OSM-data is just better in this regard
Yes. It's hard to make out the map with all the pinned ads sometimes, and I've had multiple times this year where it has taken me to the wrong place. Every time that happens, I boot up Organic Maps and get right to my destination.
Lolwut? Didn't remise they were serving ads on maps too, that's hectic
You know how you can see pinned restaurants with their name and a fork and knife icon? Businesses can pay to show their full logo and get priority in search results/what shows first on the map as you zoom in.
In the last six months, yes. It suggests short cuts that can create long delays. Shorter by miles, but often worse in the end.
I haven't had any issues with Google maps recently, occasionally it'll try to take me on a more "fuel efficient" route. Recently my wife used apple maps and it took us to the wrong location, it kept trying to take us to Washington township when the address we entered was in Washington heights.
Fascinating, I’ve found better results with Apple Maps lately than Google Maps. Which blew my mind, because Apple Maps was a complete joke when it launched.
In our experience Google maps updates traffic conditions faster than apple maps. But Google maps tends to pick more routes that I wouldn't consider the most efficient, ex: getting off the highway sooner and taking back roads vs going up another exit closer to the destination. But like I said we have had a few times where apple maps has gotten confused with places with similar names.
I'm always concerned about google maps because the alternatives suck, but google is making their services awful, one by one. I'm waiting for the day that google maps becomes terrible too. I do have openstreetmaps (using organic maps on android) and I fixed a few things about my local area there but it doesn't have some of the features I'd like and it doesn't seem like they have plans to add them.
Just as an example, business reviews. I can use yelp but it is nice that it's right there. Also, the user submitted things like speed traps, accidents, etc.
Just go osm.org and help spread the word
Alternatively, download Organic Maps and contribute to OpenStreeMaps and help make the best alternative even better.
From their page:
Here's some "high quality" (heh heh) anecdata for you: I navigated from my house in Somerville to a restaurant in the Seaport district of Boston last night, in the POURING rain using public transit and walking.
Google maps literally was leading me around in circles downtown once I got off the train, so I switched to Apple Maps and it was straight shooting from there on in.
I think GMaps is more susceptible to the tall buildings fouling the GPS. Not sure why?
I think it seems that way because it's trying to promote alternative routes. whether it's routing around slowdowns, taking a more fuel efficient route, or whatever.
however this could also be due to the user having different expectations for different trips and not changing the settings.
I don't use gmap for navigation but to check locations. I had to get some cash so looked up atm and found few nearby. When I went there it was just apartments so looked up another one which turned out to just homes and small shops. Ended up getting off and asked someone working in the shop for directions and got everything I could have wanted.
The search results are inconsistent and they started including advertising on the map but I haven't noticed a decline in route finding. Perhaps there were accidents or traffic jams being routed around?
All of Google's products have been getting progressively worse under their current CEO. He's the direct driver of their enshitification. I have had Google home speakers since they were released, along with a few other of their "smart" products; every single one of them has declined in performance. They get confused, don't respond, can't connect, give the totally wrong answer, glitch out, etc.
I used to be able to run my roomba by voice command without any problems. Nowadays half the time Google responds to the command, confirms it is doing the command, and then does nothing. Last night I used it to turn off the tv, which it did, but then it spontaneously turned back on after 5 seconds.
CEO/MBA malakas are (one of the reasons) why we can't have nice things.
Absolutely. Not only does it show ads now, it's so busy that it's distracting and hard to keep track of your route.
It's been wonky lately. Maybe it's just drunk?
Yeah I feel like it's become bloated and slow tbh.
I've actually been having more trouble with Apple Maps lately.
My last trip was to perform at a country fair type thing and it couldn't locate the venue. So I thought maybe if I put on the satellite view, I could spot it and drop a pin? But the whole area was behind a cloud. Wow.
Then later, when we were returning, it tried to send me on a shortcut through a mall parking into an overgrown field.
It’s been broken on Fx Android for the last few weeks. I mostly use it to cross-reference information lacking on OpenStreetMap (or if I need to see photos). It sucks since locally, the only maps businesses bother with is Google.
You should add the businesses to osm if you needed gmaps to get there
I've been getting weird walking instructions. Like 6 min walk is +30 to avoid some invisible barrier.
I live in a city with great public transport and for years Google maps was great for bus/tube times and walking routes. Now after 6 years of no probs Google maps has forgotten the bus stop right under my window and thinks I should walk up or down the road to the next stop. It has forgotten the crossings what are still there, no road works or anything, and thinks I should take 15 min detour instead of just crossing the street right then and there. It's clearly going downhill here.
Those invisible intangible barriers can be tricky like that.
Google has sent me through toll roads multiple times with avoid toll roads enabled.
I have a cheap iphone just for apple maps which hasn't fucked me over ... yet
I am always an "avoid tolls" kind of person. I use Google maps a lot and have never had an issue with this.
But just the other week, I was coming back from a road trip and it kept trying to make me use a rolled expressway!! Wtf!! I even triple checked my settings. I don't understand wtf is up with that
Just avoid Australia, you'll be fine.
But Doctor, I Am Pagliaccidespite living here believe me I tryEvery time I navigate with Google maps somewhere while someone else going to the same location uses apple maps, they have trouble and I have none whatsoever. It's pretty consistently that way
I use google maps every day. Wouldn't say it's been getting worse.
I don't know about getting worse but it definitely has trouble in my area with some businesses/ parking lots and how to get in to them
i tend to use waze more anyway
Waze is owned by Google, and they're slowly converging over time.
figures heh
Its gotten very slow and laggy and crashes often.
In my experience, ever since the layoffs, most google apps have had a negative experience.
Gmail layout shifts when selecting now. Maps crashes or displays the PIP ui by mistake. Too Many extra clicks added to maps as well. It's more confusing to navigate.
YouTube... The ad nonsense. One could go on
Mine actually started crashing when I opened it, so yeah. Luckily I live in a grid so it's not really hard to figure it out myself.
All this talk about organic maps here on Lemmy does not feel organic at all.
Is there an ad campaign or something?
What sense would it make to spend money on an ad campaign for Organic Maps? It's completely free and the makers of the app literally get nothing out of you using it.
I don't know. It's just that it feels really unorganic how often it comes up on Lemmy.
Especially with fake sounding "organic" threads that I know from proven social media marketing.
I could very well be wrong of course but if I had the time I would investigate this further.
I mean it's always a good assumption nowadays with chat gpt