[pathik@2020]

A close shave and a valuable lesson for all of us !! Google Map does funny things with route suggestions in spite of unchecking 'Avoid Toll Roads'. With all the AI might with them one would believe that they would be able to fix such niggling problems but it is not the case. Just to demonstrate this - even though I have unchecked all options in 'Route Options' Google Map still shows me alternate route to avoid toll from Thane to Nashik.


Over a period of time I have learnt this the hard way - not to trust technology blindly and instead ask along the way. A chat at a dhaba / toll can also yield additional insights about a route that a map may not be able to help with.

[CosmicWizard]

Not only Gmap routing over kachcha roads gets you in trouble but I even managed to get hit by its misleading traffic data! Once en route to our hotel in South Goa, it tried to save a few minutes by taking us through a clean blue shortcut but guess what: it was through the mining area with no cell reception and thus the traffic map failed to detect the 5 kilometer long line of slow moving lorries coming in and out of the iron ore mine I never saw so many trucks in my life before, must have been a 1000:1 truck to car ratio on that road. Took me a good one hour longer to reach the hotel

[danielsinghin]

Originally Posted by shishir333

Time for some investigation and introspection

Wow, this is a crazy situation and thanks for the detailed write up, this is
good info, especially with the toll option in maps. I know a lot of people keep this checked to save some cash, but later get into a lot of trouble.
good to hear all went well land everyone safe and the harrier back to normal. Cheers !!

[blackasta]

The way I see it, Gmaps is maybe 10% to blame for this, that too just for not being updated for the broken bridge over the creek. Rest 90% is the responsibility of the OP's friend.

• He willfully programmed the device to avoid toll roads
• Took an unknown dark unlit narrow road over a well traveled motorway
• Took the risk of driving on that road at night with family
• Had the option of tracking back and joining the main road when he saw the broken bridge but did not
• Tried to ford an unknown creek in the dead of the night with no support vehicle
• Never bothered to alight and check the condition of the river bed before trying to drive over it

He should thank his lucky stars that he had

• A friend like the OP whom he could call at that ungodly hour
• A working cell phone connection
• No miscreants or robbers lurking in the dark
• An active insurance company honoring their RSA and springing into action
• No major damage done to the car

Would request the mods to remove the ' google maps terror' out of the thread heading - it's starting to look like a clickbait.

[deathwalkr]

wow. that's not a situation i would fancy myself to be in! Mad props to the OP for helping out a friend in need.

my friends and i faced a similar situation while trying to find a hidden coffee estate bungalow and google kept taking us through some random roads. thankfully sense prevailed when the road stopped and it was just stones and rocks ahead of us, and we took a u turn and went back to town, asked a few locals and made our way to the bungalow properly

[7000plusrpm]

Wow! The first thing that came to my mind is the Airtels and Jios of our country worked at a remote place! Just imagine the plight if there is no network late at the night. Thankfully, everything worked out fine. This is one of the reasons why I suggest purchasing RSA from the insurance provider even if the car manufacturer is offering one. Big shout out to the insurance provider for sorting everything out on a quick call.

I'm new to driving and would prefer to drive during the daytime. Also, before setting sail, I try to scan the route, find out the major cities and towns along the way. Then, instead of searching for the destination from the current location, I try to add stops at the major cities. This and taking help from the locals where the language is not a barrier usually is a fool-proof way to travel to me.

I had a real scare using GPS when I was in the States. I was driving from the L.L. Bean store at Freeport, Maine to Boston, Massachusetts. It was around 9 PM and I had missed the ramp to the i95 on my left and had to take a u-turn. Now, Google map was kind enough to show me a dark road that instead of returning me to the main road had landed me on someone's lawn! Cops were called but they had somehow realized it was a mistake.

It was difficult to trust G-maps blindly since! Hence the added precaution of plotting the route on the map.

[cnaganathan]

I have had my woes with Google Maps about 2 years ago while driving through the hills in Kerala. We were staying at a resort near Kumily and decided to do a day trip to Idukki dam and Vagamon. All was well till we reached Idukki - no issues on that route. Going from Idukki to vagamon we got lost and by the time we reached Vagamon it was close to sunset thanks to the mis-directions from Google. Disappointed that we couldn't do the planned parasailing we satisfied ourselves with just a visit to Mottakunnu before hitting the road again to get back to the resort. And that is where I made a mistake. instead of the road via Elappara - Kuttikanam - Vandiperiyar which was a 55Km drive, I decided to go through Elappara - Alady - Ananvilasam as it was 7 kms shorter. On reaching Alady I had to take a call on the move just to tell that I was not at work and by the time I got back to Navigation, google had rerouted me and at 7:00 PM we were driving through non existent hill roads through some villages. To make it a short story, we somehow managed to find our way through the villages that had gone to bed already and finally reached the resort after a 3 hour drive through unlit, unpaved hill roads. And all this was just 3 weeks before the infamous monsoon flooding of Idukki district in 2018. To this day my wife and I shiver at the thought of doing that stretch on a rainy night!!

[virgopal]

German Tourists Using Google Maps to Navigate Udaipur Roads Get Stuck in Farmland
The tourists from Germany and Uttarakhand were travelling in a Grand i10 which ended up getting stuck in slush after they took a single lane that was not developed.
Read on: https://flip.it/QBsRSs

[caffeineAM]

Old thread. But I thought I should bring up one of my run-ins with Google Maps navigation.





No that is not a monsoon flood. It's a dam resorvoir. We had followed Google Maps directions and missed a rather faded "diversion" sign.