Google Maps’ real-time visitors updates warn you about slowdowns and information you towards “sooner routes out there.” Sadly, Google Maps is so ubiquitous that its suggestions may cause traffic-filled nightmares simply as usually as they assist folks escape them.
A couple of weeks again, I had a tech demo at Logitech’s workplaces in North San Jose, which I scheduled early to beat the push. I left at 1 pm with 50 miles and somewhat 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 quick 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 at last again to 680 earlier than coming to my exit. Seven completely different highways (when you depend 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 brought about 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 “Quicker route out there” despatched hundreds 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 reduce 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 most likely saved me an additional hour of useless 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 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 instances, folks will rigorously select a particular 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” except you cancel the swap shortly sufficient. I’ve discovered a number of Reddit posts criticizing this very challenge, with folks suggesting methods like including additional stops simply to forestall auto-rerouting.
Google Maps often means that I “exit hop” or “freeway soar” in congested visitors, which 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 visitors down in the long term, however it’s by no means clear that is what you are agreeing to do when Maps reroutes you.
My essential downside is that Google Maps’ algorithm would not appear to account for its personal energy to alter the circulate of visitors primarily based on its large attain. In accordance with 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 modifications that actuality and shifts a ton of 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 in regards to the algorithm. Does it account for present 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, the general public I’ve requested about this say that they do not let Maps reroute them anymore. They select a route once they depart, and if it slows down, they stick with the present route as a result of they do not belief mid-route modifications to repay. Regardless of Google Maps’ good repute, that is one space the place folks have misplaced or are dropping religion.
Lots of Google’s current Maps updates have centered on a UI overhaul for Android telephones and GenAI suggestions on the place to go. However relatively than have Maps telling me about “locations with a classic vibe in SF,” I might relatively it give attention to 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 work out the best way to be extra prudent with its “Quicker route out there” suggestions, that’ll make everybody safer and happier.