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?

  • Empricorn@feddit.nl
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    29
    ·
    2 months ago

    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.

    • skulblaka@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      13
      ·
      2 months ago

      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.

      • Empricorn@feddit.nl
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        2 months ago

        That’s… some different issues. I think your phone/vehicle/GPS might actually be haunted. Do you know of any exorcists?

    • TheSambassador@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      2 months ago

      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.

      • Empricorn@feddit.nl
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 months ago

        Woah, that’s crazy. I was specifically thinking of I-25! Though it does it with other roads and highways as well…