[roy_libran]

Google Maps, more often than not, does the job pretty neatly. It is quite unlikely that the time displayed would vary significantly (> 10%), is what my experience has been.

But, my favourite cheese with Google Maps is it's routing algorithm. It sometimes misses out on the simplest of connections and routes you across half of town.
It is mainly in situations like this, where I end up at my destination 15-20 minutes before Google said I would!
The other few times, I am in the mood to outrun the maps to the finish line/time.

[avingodb]

Google always shows current traffic and not the building traffic which is what we encounter while on the move. So adding about 10 percent is always useful is what I have learnt.

Second, it did put me in a spot once in Uttarakhand by showing a road that was only suitable for a bike. So cross checking is always a must!

[2000rpm]

Agree. I have found that in case of cities, Google maps give a lower estimate compared to reality while in rural locations it gives higher estimate compared to reality.

In Mumbai Bangalore, the estimated time is always lower than actual time. When I travel to jharkhand for travel, estimated time is much higher than actual time. Sometimes by more than 25 percent!

[Added_flavor]

I am somebody who's heavily reliant on GMaps, both for day to day commute and for the highway jaunts!

For the commute, it undoubtedly helps plan the route by providing real-time traffic inputs. The times may not be accurate to the T, but overall provide a good idea of the kind of traffic you can expect and the best possible route to take at a given time.

For the highway jaunts, as some others mentioned, sometimes it might lead you on to some desolate or narrow stretches (in the pretext of a route faster by 2 minutes). This is a glitch for sure and the only way to overcome this is by one's own common sense, awareness of the correct route beforehand and the names of cities/towns you pass by and also the overall directional orientation.

In a nutshell, I'd rather continue to use GMaps instead of shunning it due to the minor glitches!

[Rajeevraj]

I think the discussion has gone off a little bit away from what the OP's point was (and also my subsequent comment).

Overall Google Maps does an excellent job considering the conditions it operates in. Timing can be off a bit in some cases and some level of common sense needs to be applied and awareness is definitely needed when using maps.

I think the OP's point (and mine too) was that the accuracy of estimation seems to be going down for the same routes/areas. What was earlier a 10-20% error in estimation, now in several cases is 50-60% and my question was also why that seems to be happening. One would expect Maps to continuously improve its estimates over time. But why is the accuracy going down?

Is it because the pattern of traffic is changing too rapidly? Or can it be because there is less data being collected due to all the privacy concerns recently (have a large bunch of users tweaked settings to share minimal data as possible?)

[GTO]

Related Thread on Map Blunders

I'm a stickler for punctuality and Google Maps helps me bigtime in arriving on time. I'm on time for 99% of meets or dinners etc. The 1% is only due to situations out of my control.

Originally Posted by RaSing

My experience with Google Maps has been 95 percent good and 5 percent bad.

Ditto. 95% positive. The only time I've seen Google Maps goof up is when you are travelling in rush-hour traffic and there is an unexpected snarl. Two recent incidents I can remember:

1. A flooded patch at Parel recently.

2. A religious festival at Mahim which poured onto the main road.

Other than these, it's been spot on in Mumbai. In fact, I've made it a habit to check which route is faster every time I'm taking the car out.

Originally Posted by drmohitg

I am pretty sure they even know the colour of your vehicle, leave alone how many tyres does it have.

Good one.

I yesterday got a notification via my calendar about the change in time of a upcoming flight journey which I had booked online and there is no reason for Google to know that.

Probably just read it from your gmail where the e-ticket was sent.

[swissknife]

Originally Posted by drmohitg

I yesterday got a notification via my calendar about the change in time of a upcoming flight journey which I had booked online and there is no reason for Google to know that.

If the reservation was marked to your 'gmail' account / if you used an Android phone / Chrome browser, the changes are very bright that Google is well aware.

On topic:

Apart from getting information on current traffic conditions from users on the same road, GMaps also uses past data based on time of day, day of week, weather conditions etc. to arrive at a reasonably accurate travel time.

[ksameer1234]

In my experience, I seldom use Google maps for ETA information. My use of Maps is only to find routes and navigate. The reason for this being that Google shows ETA only on the basis of current traffic conditions in live navigation. For eg. whenever I travel to Pune from Aurangabad, leaving at around 4 PM, Google will show ETA as around 5 hours.

Now this is considering traffic situation at 4 PM. Being a regular on this route, I know that I'll reach Shirur by around 7-8 PM and there will be massive traffic there, which Google does not show at 4 PM. If only Google can predict expected traffic throughout the journey considering the elapsed time of journey. That would make life so much more easier.

[avdhesh15]

As others have mentioned, in Mumbai it's fairly accurate. Especially if you are acceptable to a 5-10% variation. It's only in extreme traffic situations where it doesn't work well. But more often than not, no reason to complain.

[msdivy]

In Bangalore, Google maps has not been able to factor in the metro construction work. So a 40 minutes journey estimated by Google can turn into 90 minutes.

[Joxster]

I've been out of India for almost a year now, so I'm not sure how well Google Maps functions now, but on the occasions I did use it when I was there, I found a lot of routing issues.

I find that here in Belgium, a lot of people use a navigation application called Waze, and it is updated real time by users, which leads to some real benefits (Listed Below).
Is this application available in India?

1. The routing is much more accurate than Google Maps, because users report when roads are closed, or construction work is going on.
2. The speed limit for the road you're driving on is indicated, and your actual speed is also indicated, so you can drive closer to the speed limit.
3. Hazards (Ex: Vehicle parked on shoulder or Road Works) are reported by users, so you can avoid accidents.
4. Accidents are reported by users, so you can avoid big traffic jams.
5. Speed cameras are reported by users, so you can avoid speeding tickets.

All of this combined, means that you have a much more accurate ETA, and that's why everyone over here uses it. I also found that it is accurate while we drove through France & The Netherlands, so it seems to be used across Europe.
The application also doesn't allow you to make instant changes to the route while the vehicle is moving. It asks you first, whether you are the driver or the passenger, and only when you confirm that you are a passenger can you change the route. I love this emphasis on safety

If this application is available in India, I highly recommend TBHPians to start using it

Cheers

[naveen.raju]

Originally Posted by Joxster

I find that here in Belgium, a lot of people use a navigation application called Waze, and it is updated real time by users, which leads to some real benefits (Listed Below).
Is this application available in India?

It's very much available in India but I feel the app to be a bit heavy on battery consumption and the phone tends to heat up when compared to Gmaps.

But the speed camera warning on Waze is good. I use it to avoid the cam and as for the real time traffic and route, I use Gmaps. The ETA is pretty accurate and helps to find the clogged roads. But some of the inner roads (one way roads) are not updated. For me the usage is 95% Gmaps and 5% in-car navigation.

[sudev]

Plus Waze limits navigation to max 50kms radius. Was one of the early testers and contributors to road database. It's was interesting to make huge gain in points when traveling on roads "new" to Waze database

[Zappo]

Originally Posted by drmohitg

I yesterday got a notification via my calendar about the change in time of a upcoming flight journey which I had booked online and there is no reason for Google to know that.

They read your email. AI can decipher the rest.

However, is that not so handy? I used to block everything earlier. And my smartphone was just a regular emailing and browsing machine. Then one day accidentally I discovered that even when i think I have blocked everything Google still knows everything but just remains silent. That's when I decided if I can't stop Google from collecting all this info then I might as well get benefitted from it. Never looked back after that.

[Joxster]

Originally Posted by naveen.raju

It's very much available in India but I feel the app to be a bit heavy on battery consumption and the phone tends to heat up when compared to Gmaps.

But the speed camera warning on Waze is good. I use it to avoid the cam and as for the real time traffic and route, I use Gmaps.

Thank you for confirming on the availability of the application! I agree that Waze is indeed heavy on battery consumption, but most people keep their phones charging in the car while using navigation, so that's usually not an issue.
Also, I think that the phone tends to heat up more because the map is showing real-time updates constantly, but it shouldn't be a problem so to speak.

Originally Posted by sudev

Plus Waze limits navigation to max 50kms radius. Was one of the early testers and contributors to road database. It's was interesting to make huge gain in points when traveling on roads "new" to Waze database

Maybe that was in the beginning of it's inception in India? There is no such limit while using the application here in Europe. We used it when we drove from Amsterdam to Paris, which is almost 500 kms, and there was no limitation or issues.

Cheers