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Google Maps Reliability


Karthik Raptor

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It was bizarre last night that google maps took some of us to a completely different location, but the actual starting point was in the opposite direction ~30kms away. @Krishna Rsaid he ended up in sand all by himself. Luckily had enough time to reach the starting point but it's not a great start, running late, rush through deflating, setting up the flag etc. 

I have also read this issue happening in some other threads and it happened to me a few times, especially when the location is offroad. Is there anything we can do to improve, i.e. add co-ordinates, landmarks (if there is any) next to the meeting point link? Just a thought to avoid some anxiety 😅

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Thank you for starting this thread @Karthik Raptor.

 

so last night, I clicked on the link from the post thread and checked the destination - it was correct. However, when I was on the way, Google maps showed a "faster route available" and once I clicked that, the ETA was cut down by 10 mins and it started taking me inside the desert. 

After about 700 metres driving in soft sand, I could see big dunes coming up. 

Stopped the car and called @Chaitanya D and he sent a Location on WhatsApp which was 38 kms away.

Thank you guys for waiting for me but as @Karthik Raptormentioned, it wasn't a great experience to get started on a rush. I wasn't deflated properly due to the rush. I was running on soft suspension until someone got stuck so I had to time to fix my suspensions and off-road lights. And you know about my radio 😀.

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Having used Google Maps in other countries (especially India) where it doesn’t have the most updated maps, it has the tendency to take you through narrow streets because a) it’s either just reading the map data that says there is a road there, and/or b) has seen enough data of traffic moving through that path for it to make recommendations. Because of this, it’s sometimes taken me through narrow alleys or even into fields which aren’t really trackable roads.

I have also been a power user of Waze for many many years, regularly contributing to their community mapping service online. And between the two of them, I prefer putting in the coordinates on Waze than using Google Maps. I also check the terrain view to confirm if there’s actually a road there. But this is just not enough. With the rate of construction, new roads and paths are constantly coming up so it’s crucial to intersect multiple sources of data.
 

Furthermore, when it comes to Google Maps, try to always use coordinates, an active landmark, and the full link (not the shortened ones that the mobile app will share). The shortened URLs have a tendency to break and I’ve had deliveries to my home show up kilometers away.

Long story short, folks please don’t rely on technology so much that it’s your only source of truth. As you venture off-road being able to cross-reference multiple sources to build your personal judgement is critical towards becoming a better navigator. For example, if you use Gaia, you’ll see it captures farm tracks and even trails better than Waze or Google maps which are both designed for roads only. Apply the same to your on-road navigation too. Technology is not infallible.

Don’t be Michael Scott and end up in the lake 🤓

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1 hour ago, Krishna R said:

so last night, I clicked on the link from the post thread and checked the destination - it was correct. However, when I was on the way, Google maps showed a "faster route available" and once I clicked that, the ETA was cut down by 10 mins and it started taking me inside the desert

It's Google's intelligence that is recognizing you as an offroader. 😂

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31 minutes ago, Srikumar said:

It's Google's intelligence that is recognizing you as an offroader. 😂

It didn't know that am a newbie.

Must have recognized the car and was like I need to give a route that suits the car's reputation 😅

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Had a similar situation although with Waze, which is really unusual, it actually froze on us and it was only as it got closer to the meeting time , I realised we were at least 8km passed the meeting point. 
 

Have never had that happen before.

it’s also good to study the meet location in google maps with satellite imagery on so you have a good  sense of the surrounding areas and identify landmarks.

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The best approach will be - for on road and off road- is to put the co-ordinate and study the route on the phone before you start out to ensure the route is logical the final location is as expected. If we follow the route without anticipation, there is a good chance to end up in wrong destination. Happened myriad of times, especially with google maps. As @munkybizness mentioned, in India it's a different ball game all together, sure to end up in a ditch.😁

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3 hours ago, Anoop Nair said:

The best approach will be - for on road and off road- is to put the co-ordinate and study the route on the phone before you start out to ensure the route is logical the final location is as expected. If we follow the route without anticipation, there is a good chance to end up in wrong destination. Happened myriad of times, especially with google maps. As @munkybizness mentioned, in India it's a different ball game all together, sure to end up in a ditch.😁

Thanks. The problem in this instance was the 'wrong' starting point is a legit one, where some drives begin (just behind the yoga centre). I even went there the previous evening to walk the dog and there was no reason to disbelieve 😅.

It's only when I reached the point, the maps decided to re-route with time to destination as 21 mins more in the opposite direction!

Probably Gaia is the way to go with co-ordinates.

 

Edited by Karthik Raptor
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as @Anoop Nair correctly mentioned - checking on the meeting point and fuel stops is quite important. I tend to review the meeting point & plan fuel stop the day before. It has happened few times that the location for meeting point will come up as somewhere near Akoya while the calendar would mention it as Al Qudra. 

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don't drive like its your last one.

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