Google Maps’ real-time site visitors updates warn you about slowdowns and information you towards “sooner routes out there.” Sadly, Google Maps is so ubiquitous that its suggestions can trigger traffic-filled nightmares simply as typically as they assist folks escape them.
Just a few weeks again, I had a tech demo at Logitech’s workplaces in North San Jose, which I scheduled early to beat the frenzy. I left at 1 pm with 50 miles and slightly over an hour to get residence. As I took off, I noticed a warning about an accident on 680N, so I turned on an audiobook and obtained prepared for a short slowdown.
It took two and a half hours to make it again. I had traveled from 680 to 238 to 84, then onto floor streets for over ten miles, then to 580, 13, 24, and eventually again to 680 earlier than coming to my exit. Seven completely different highways (in the event you rely 680 twice) full to the brim with rerouted Google Maps customers.
Here is what occurred. As I drove up 680, Google Maps warned me that the accident had triggered a fifteen-minute slowdown and that exiting up forward would save time. Since I did not have anybody there to examine Google’s new route, I trusted the app’s recommendation and exited.
So did everybody else, it seems! The siren name of a “Sooner route out there” despatched 1000’s of drivers onto a two-lane avenue with just one exit lane for a flip two miles down the highway. Everybody crammed into that lane whereas all of the drivers unfamiliar with this new route frantically lower in line miles forward, inflicting an enormous slowdown. After about 20 minutes to drive a few miles, Maps rerouted me once more.
I will not bore you with an extended, drawn-out description of an extended, drawn-out drive. Suffice it to say that I very a lot regretted taking Google Maps’ recommendation as an alternative of simply sticking it out on the direct route. That may have in all probability saved me an additional hour of pointless zig-zagging throughout the Bay Space.
Each buddy or member of the family I’ve requested about Google Maps‘ “sooner route out there” had a right away site visitors horror story to share, the place the app despatched them on some obscure side-street path to keep away from gridlock on a freeway or expressway, just for issues to sluggish to a crawl as a result of a ton of different drivers took the very same route on a highway not designed for heavy use. I’ve additionally seen r/Google Maps posts complaining about this.
Different occasions, folks will fastidiously select a selected route for a highway journey or lengthy haul with higher surroundings, extra EV stations or relaxation stops, or higher circumstances for driving a big truck or RV — just for Google Maps to auto-reroute them to one thing “sooner” until you cancel the change shortly sufficient. I’ve discovered a number of Reddit posts criticizing this very challenge, with folks suggesting methods like including additional stops simply to stop auto-rerouting.
Google Maps often means that I “exit hop” or “freeway bounce” in congested site visitors, that means I take an exit however keep within the left lane and reenter the freeway a mile forward. It is a jerk transfer that solely slows site visitors down in the long term, nevertheless it’s by no means clear that is what you are agreeing to do when Maps reroutes you.
My essential drawback is that Google Maps’ algorithm would not appear to account for its personal energy to alter the circulate of site visitors primarily based on its extensive attain. In response to a MarketWatch examine, 70% of U.S. drivers use Google Maps regardless of iPhones’ reputation right here. So by observing {that a} highway is empty, Maps adjustments that actuality and shifts a ton of site visitors to that new highway, despite the fact that it finally will not be a lot sooner for the lemmings drivers following its recommendation.
I emailed a Google Maps contact and requested them concerning the algorithm. Does it account for present site visitors ranges or a highway’s most capability when it recommends a sooner route? Are they conscious of the drawbacks of the “sooner route out there” system—its engineers reside in California, in spite of everything—and can Google’s new Gemini AI pivot result in higher recs down the road? As of but, I have not heard again.
Anecdotally, most people I’ve requested about this say that they do not let Maps reroute them anymore. They select a route after they go away, and if it slows down, they stick with the present route as a result of they do not belief mid-route adjustments to repay. Regardless of Google Maps’ good fame, that is one space the place folks have misplaced or are dropping religion.
Lots of Google’s latest Maps updates have targeted on a UI overhaul for Android telephones and GenAI suggestions on the place to go. However moderately than have Maps telling me about “locations with a classic vibe in SF,” I might moderately it concentrate on the basics.
In my thoughts, Google Maps wants the “with nice energy comes nice duty” speak. Sending a simultaneous sign to each Google Maps driver to converge on some backroad detour is a recipe for bottlenecks and additional accidents. If Google can determine easy methods to be extra prudent with its “Sooner route out there” suggestions, that’ll make everybody safer and happier.
