Google Maps is, often, on crack

[jducoeur]

[First of several little posts about Coronation and reflections on the reign.]

The travel to Coronation was generally fun and stress-free, at least insofar as Friday rush-hour driving ever is. But it was a good reminder that Google Maps is an automated program, and sometimes shows poor judgement. To wit: regardless of the traffic on the Garden State Parkway and New Jersey Turnpike, taking us through the middle of downtown Newark is probably *never* the right answer. This will remind me to look at the route it has laid out, and see what that actually *means*, before uncritically following it.

(On Sunday, we did the more sensible thing: msmemory figured out the route herself, and we just used Google to keep an eye on the traffic...)

Comments

Re: I feel your pain...

[laurion]

Indeed, whereas my Garmin seems to optimize for shortest time. Of course, it doesn't know about traffic, so I can still run into trouble at times, but it does have a really easy and useful 'detour' button which will sometimes get me around a trouble spot.

Re: I feel your pain...

[jducoeur]

Actually, my Garmin *does* have traffic info -- but it's dependent on over-the-air reports, so they're not as accurate as the Google info. But when it does know about a jam, it's remarkably good at routing around it: I've learned a number of key shortcuts through Cambridge that way...

Re: I feel your pain...

[laurion]

Some models do have that. My father has one of those. IIRC they're relying on traffic reports from MSN, but they do seem to be less real time than the Google ones. One wonders where each of those sources is ultimately pulling data from.