Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Travelogues (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travelogues/)

-   -   When Google Maps takes you to the road less travelled! (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travelogues/188649-when-google-maps-takes-you-road-less-travelled-4.html)

Looks like you never stopped to ask for directions. Seems there were no ladies in the car. Else you wont stop hearing about it for the rest of your life:D

Looks interesting. Can you share the 'wrong route'? And did you continue along the same route till the end, after you were saved?

Thanks for the heads-up:D

One doesn't go to Kabini resort alone, my wife and two kids were in the car. I did ask directions at least 5 times to ensure garmin was not lying.

2016 Summer, we went to Rajasthan. While I was going towards Sardar Market in Jodhpur, GoogleMaps routed me through some of the narrowest roads (although much better and wider road was available). :Frustrati

I was in a XUV. In my OWN city, I wouldn't venture onto such narrow streets even in my Alto. In a unknown city, it was a nightmare with family in the car.

Will let the pictures and the video do the talking.











https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJfQaGOJwcA

More than the width of the road, what do we say of people who park a 4 wheeler on such a road.
:Frustrati

In addition, the people on two wheels do not have the patience to let the blockage be cleared for everyone to move freely
:deadhorse

This one is a very nice thread, indeed.


I can recall a recent incident where I relied upon the Google maps and started on a journey from Ganapatiphule to Harihareshwar. As usual the G-maps chose the shortest route for me. The lady with sweet voice kept murmuring “you are on the shortest route. You should reach your destination by 19:30 hrs”.

As the journey progressed, the path changed from National Highway to Major District Roads, from country roads to broken and barely existent roads and then to some dusty pathways. I had immense faith on Google and its technology, and so I followed the lady’s instructions scrupulously. At a hamlet named Shipole, I found myself on a road which was completely broken. I did not give up and kept moving bravely like a war prince duly enjoying the hide and seek views of Savitri river which flowed parallel to this road. After about 5 kms of travel, at a place called Vesave this road passed over a structure that resembled a small wharf and came to an abrupt end leading me right into the mighty river. :Shockked: I was flabbergasted and all my princely bravery had sunk into this river which was flowing in full glory into the Arabian sea a Kilometre or so ahead. Then came the sweet voice “Now take a ferry and you should reach your destination by 19:40 Hrs”.

A bit of search around led me to the office of a ferry service provider, and within another 15 minutes my Car landed at a hamlet called Baghmandala on the other side of the river. After checking into the hotel room I checked the route options and found the “avoid ferry” option as un-checked, which was the main cause for this 'Adventure'.

Now I make a point to inspect/ re-inspect all route options that are checked or unchecked on G-maps before venturing into any journey.

Last week on the way to Kabini, I took the left turn on the ring road at Mysore. Google was suggesting to turn right at the junction where I have to take left towards Kabani. Right goes towards Mysore city, not sure what google was trying to do.

The dreaded days of "Data connection lost" message I think is gone now, I have been at the mercy of data connection at multiple occasions lost in both city and country roads with no sense of direction

Though it happened for me in few occasions, there's one which I could never forget, during my visit to VelanKanni. I was directed through all the remote hamlets and paddy fields, where the track was meant for tractors only..
That was my worst experience and I make sure that I thoroughly check the complete routing and all the alternate routes on every journey, but again Google Maps is the only app that I can refer, as like everyone.

@ nishant - do share your other adventures as well, you have a nice way of putting down your thoughts :thumbs up

Both G maps and my Scorpio's navigation confused us totally in Calcutta. I was driving for close to 12 hours and both the maps took me inside Sealdah railway station. While I had set Tollygunj as my destination. Finally, someone had to board a cab which guided us :uncontrol

Thank you everyone for your kind words and for sharing your crazy experiences while using mobile Maps! This was definitely not my only unexpected experience while using GMaps, will surely share them with you all later in this thread.

And yes, for those encouraging me to write more; I'll be working on my next write-up very soon! :)

Now that looks definitely scary, unless you were driving a hovercraft! :deadhorse

Mind sharing where was this exactly? And was there a road that was flooded due to recent rains?

This is quite common these days. Once i was travelling to Ahmednagar from Pune, to save some 9 KM map directed me to take one village road instead of SH 27, it took 1 hour extra for me connecting to same highway after some ~40 KM.

When you are setting maps to some location in outskirts trust on local intelligence as well and ask some one before you start. Lesson learnt.

Well this happened to me when I was in Kochi, Kerala and had go towards fort Kochi area from close to the airport. It took me to the end of the land and asked me to get into a ferry. Initially I was bewildered as to if at all is going to happen. Our local contact confirmed that it's indeed possible to avail jhankar service and get my xuv onboard that. There was some madenning rush as the service was slow and by the time ferry arrived there was a big pile up. Had to get xuv in a small ferry in reverse with water on both the side (bit scared) . Also I was almost sure to hurt my xuv with so many mini trucks bikes on the ferry. But by God's grace nothing even brushed my orvm. In the end it was an exciting experience sitting in xuv being driven in a ferry crossing backwaters( you can see the sea).

Happened to me too last year, leveraging the XUV500's in-built maps. However, in my case I drove taking another route to Kochi which the maps quickly recalibrated. I certainly concur that using GPS in India follows Pareto's principle(80-20), where one show follow the GPS for 80% of your drive whilst the remaining 20% should be on locals/word-of-mouth.

In November 2015, in Calicut en route Madikere, used google maps. It directed us to a a narrow residential colony road which was a dead end. Fortunately for us, it was 8 am and we found a local who directed us to the correct road.

Google Maps played saviour on earlier occasions. In Kerala, en route Sabarimala, we were somewhere between Calicut and Trissur. That was a new route for us as we usually go by train and a few times we went by vehicle were from Palghat, Guruvayur, Erumely route or Nellore, Chennai, Trichy, Dindigul, Theni, Kumily route. Of late we are prefering the latter route as roads are very good and we usually reach Pampa in just about 24 hours ( Non stop except for bath, puja and food).

Coming to the point, I offered to start google maps but my driver said he doesn't need it. I slept. After about a couple of hours, near midnight he woke me up saying he needed the maps. What happened was he used maps from his phone but had missed a turn which prompted a reroute. He became worried and woke me up. I searched for Trissur and in about 45 km we reached Trissur. From there we proceded without any problem.

On return journey, we were coming from Madurai on NH 7. After Dindigul we joined Trichy- Chennai highway. In Chennai he lost way. Almost everybody said "nera" with no proper guidance. Then too Google maps came to our rescue.

I had my share of weird experiences and saviour moments with google.

Coming from Nellore side, I was always confused at the start of Chennai bypass to Redhills to Trichy highway. I traveled this route atleast 4 times but was still confused as I always travelled after dark. Last June and July, within a fortnight, I travelled this route twice, in daytime, to and fro. Now I got the bearings of this route.

Of all Google apps, have Gmail & Youtube app only, removed rest Google apps using Activity Launcher on my Redmi Note 4.

Apart from getting lost, traffic alerts makes me unbearable of Google Maps especially if data is on.

Still in 2017 I have Nokia Maps or HERE We Go app on my phone, a habit I can never let go, period.

How to disable factory apps or bloatware link :

http://techsarjan.com/2017/03/disabl...hout-root.html


Activity Launcher link :

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...tivitylauncher


Here We Go app :

https://here.com/en/products-service.../here-wego-app