[balavj27]

Even though I rely on Google Maps 100%, recently it played with me with an unknown route which was shown as shortest route to Vagamon from Moolamattom. Even though it was a great monsoon experience with beautiful views, drizzle, mist until I saw a sharp steep turn with sticky mud in the middle of nowhere unfit for a Grand i10 to pass through which got me frightened. I though for a while, took a U-turn and it was additional 18kms to reach the actual route. Quite a learning and it is better to verify with locals if the places are remote and without National or State Highways in the route suggestions

[anand.shankar]

Has happened atleast a half a dozen times with me!

I guess at time Google thinks our life needs a doze of adventure and unilaterally starts working on it.

I use it only for planning my routes, no longer rely on it while on the fly.

Few times Gmaps got me worried, esp at night with Family on board you really dont want any unplanned adventure!

[virgovencat]

Excellent - Post the experience, it now sounds as if it was OK, but I can understand what was going thru your mind while this was happening ! I was twice in such situation - Once near khandala and second time while doing a Chennai - GOA road trip. We wanted to take road less traveled and that decision made us turn LEFT on Bangalore - Dharwad road. We took a left turn after a small town called BANKAPUR. It was a thrilling drive at around 3am thru dense jungles and we came out of these jungles before KARWAR Ghats !! Google maps showed us a road in jungles where we didn't see anything but water and mud !! but it did guide us out via Gunjavati - Yellapur - Idgundi. WOW..I still cannot forget that chill which ran thru my spine while driving thru dense forest at 3 am. It was a bad decision. Prayed GOD to get us out safe :-)

[vnabhi]

Very interesting thread that all of us can relate to! I was misled not only by Google Maps, but also by Here Maps and by my Garmin device that runs OpenStreet Maps.

The most scary was my late night drive from Kristu Jayanti College area in Bangalore to Domlur Junction in my first visit by road to Bangalore. Here maps was lagging, leaving me with only my Garmin device. Instead of guiding us to take a left at Hennur Jn with the ring road (and thereon to Tin Factory), it asked us to go straight towards Hennur and Lingarajapuram.

Perhaps that is the shortest route and traffic was not expected at 11 pm. It then took us to some Wheeler Road via Pottery Road, which appeared to be a shady, slum area. Unfortunately the route was blocked due to idols for Dusshera. So we took a left and our Garmin guided us via some railway underbridge to a service road that was beside some small railway station. We found service roads parallel to the railway tracks, so thought we should take the one on the left to be on the correct side. We were new to Bangalore and did not know that service roads permit traffic both ways.

Soon after we crossed that desolate station, the road narrowed into a slum and the Figo was almost stuck. I mustered courage to get down and ask a lone person on the road. He advised us to take the other parallel road. So we retraced our path and took that road. After a while, we found nobody on the road and we were passing through a cemetery!

But much to our relief, we found a board pointing right to Byappanahalli. My daughter knew that place, so we took that turn, and a little later were on on Old Madras Road! We heaved a sigh of relief and continued via Indira Nagar.

When I got familiar with Bangalore on my subsequent visits, I could retrace my steps. I guess the Dusshera idols blocking the road were the only obstacles, else I guess Garmin was doing a good job!

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by virgovencat

We took a left turn after a small town called BANKAPUR.

Wow, you went to Bankapur!!! I wasn't sure that was a real town. That name was made famous in the 70s by a Kannada song from a Dr.Rajkumar movie. The song started with the line "Gandu Endare Gandu". You can check it on youtube. Gandu means man in Kannada, before you assume other meanings.

[shrk_18]

Both MMI and Google maps are equally notorious.

MMI - When were heading from KRS backwaters to KR Nagara, god knows where it took us. It said turn right in one village and I was at the entrance of a cow shed. To top this, it was pouring that afternoon and no one in sight. After the rain eased, I asked for directions and went back a few kilometers to take the correct route

Google Maps - In Madurai we were trying to find our hotel and it took us through such narrow lanes, I was literally sweating bullets driving the XUV on such roads. I had to fold both the mirrors and only god knows how I escaped the ordeal without a scratch on the car

[i20ian]

Very interesting discussion. Could very well be declared as the Google maps anomaly thread.

Me too had an experience in the middle of Calicut city where Google maps led me through a very narrow lane just wide enough for my car with walls on both sides only to end up at a dead end from where I could see my destination but a boundary wall was standing tall in front. Had to reverse through the narrow lane for almost half km to reach back at the main road and ask for help from a few locals.

[PetrolRider]

Originally Posted by joshuakeys

I am sure i have take a steep right but not sure if the road you are talking about is the same that i have taken, I remember pimpari as one of the location on the way, that road took us to steep ghats the roads are good however they looked like they were never used for long time. Is it the same you were talking about?

Man that road took us to mesmerizing locations, It was exactly in Aug last year. have plans to get lost again this year to that location . will make a note of the maps and locations this time

Cheers
Josh

I am attaching extract from google map here, are you mentioning the blue line or red line. Both roads have excellent scenic beuty, but blue line matches more to your description.


As per my part of story, there were a lot. Last year few family members are visiting us and we decide to go to Lonavala. After the usual stuffs, we decided to go to Pabana lake.
Google took us through some road, no that was not road, more like a off-road forest trails through the base of Tunga fort and stranded us in front of club mahinda tungi resorts forcing us to go through the resort. Anyway we enjoyed the forest trail because of the scenic beauty and just gave up Pabana lake. I was more OK, because I was in a zoom car and not my car.

[turbodude]

Dear nishantdlv, thanks a lot for bringing this on the forum.

I want to share my personal experience where we used 2 maps and both showed us same useless way. We were saved by villagers and told to go back to city and take different route.

It happened in April this year when we were on our way from Chinchwad (Pune) to a village near Ratnagiri. It's name is SADAYE / WADAJUN / PIRANDAVANE.

Since we never went there before by a car, we decided to use google and HERE maps to find the shortest road. We made it to a village DANDE ADOM and stopped because the road became too narrow and we were travelling in rented XYLO. The driver was experienced but he too got scared when he saw the narrow road.

Following are the snapshots of the wrong route shown by both maps. The road is visible on map but very narrow and road condition is not suitable for a 4 wheeler. We were technically only 6-7 kms away but considering the risk we turned back and reached the destination after 1 hour.

Google MAPS


HERE WE GO MAPS


Please be cautious when using the maps. It's not accurate all the time.

[swissknife]

Those living in Chennai may relate to this a lot more. I had to reach a hotel that was located near the "Congress Building" on mount road from Raman Street (near the Holy Angels School). Google Maps wanted me to go Venkat raman Street, take left at Dr.Nair Road, take a right and left at Theyagara Road (Pondy Bazaar) into Thanikachalam Street, turn left into Saravanan Street, left at Boag road and right on to Theyagara Road (Pondy Bazaar) and then turn left on to Anna Salai!!!

I have marked the simplest route (in green) which joins the same road that Google Maps brings you on to after having you burn some gas! It is probably intended to improve the Petro Economy : )

[bsdbsd]

Originally Posted by GTO

This is the bridge Google Maps wanted me to cross on a recent trip in Goa...

GTO, I don't know about you and I don't judge. But if my wife was there along with me during this narrow bridge fiasco, what would have followed was surely a lifelong embarrassment . Thank you for undergoing this moment on our behalf!

[NPV]

@nishantdlv - That was an interesting experience, glad you came out safely. The combination of fog, rain, bad roads can be scary and dangerous.

Sharing an experience with maps & navigation at Hyderabad:
Took a Uber Cab at the airport and was heading towards Sainikpuri. Could not find exact destination on the Uber app, so selected the name of the colony but I also verified with the driver as soon as he started and he said he knows the area and has navigation to help. He took the PVNR Expressway and soon we were near Hussain Sagar Lake. Here, I switched on navigation on my phone, just to be on safer side.. and guess what ? Pretty soon the navigation voiceover seemed to have gotten louder, sometimes it was repeating after a short silence and then we figured out that both, the Uber navigation used by the cabbie and the one I was using on the phone were google maps It seemed pointless, so I just turned off the navigation on the phone.

As we neared RK Puram, my gut feel (based on an earlier visit) was that we need to take the railway flyover, but navigation took us below the flyover near some slums and then onto a narrow road leading into a colony for defence personnel. We finally reached what looked like the end of that road and navigation was asking us to turn right and there was a 3-4 feet passage where one can walk onto the adjoining road

We had to backup all the way out of the narrow road for about 100-200m, then found a cross road to make a U-turn and head back to take the flyover. Our destination was just a short distance away from the down ramp of the flyover!

[joshuakeys]

Originally Posted by PetrolRider

Google took us through some road, no that was not road, more like a off-road forest trails through the base of Tunga fort and stranded us in front of club mahinda tungi resorts forcing us to go through the resort. Anyway we enjoyed the forest trail because of the scenic beauty and just gave up Pabana lake. I was more OK, because I was in a zoom car and not my car.

Looks like i have taken the blue line, This route definitely have good roads then not sure now, Like i said will plan it this time to the same location and same route.

At time its really fun to get lost.

Originally Posted by i20ian

through the narrow lane for almost half km to reach back at the main road and ask for help from a few locals.

I have had this similar situation when i was going to lonavla(Lions's point), I was new to Pune then,

GMaps took me to the road where there was dead end and the other side was the road that leads to my destination, Checked with the locals and came across a narrow bridge which looked too week to stand my 2 toner SAFARI, I was literally holding my breath while i crossed the 100 meter bridge. Cursed Google maps to the core on that day.

Cheers
Josh

[Thilak29]

My two cents - Google map took me here while suggesting a route (on my way to Guruvayur, Kerala), when I stopped it says continue further!

[Krishnan V G]

Well, by and large I have had positive experiences of using Google Maps with the exception of two.
First, while driving from Gurgaon to Bhatinda in Punjab, Google Maps took us to the bank of a river, and there was no way we could move forward. Luckily for us, we met a farmer who guided us to the right path.
Second, we were driving from Gurgaon to Chennai and we wanted to avoid getting into Agra City but still wanted to use YEW till Agra. Google Maps suggested us a route that would pass through several villages before reaching the Gwalior Road. Again luckily for us, a tour guide stopped us and guided us by the right route. Where the YEW meets the Fatehabad Road in Agra, Google Maps suggested us to take a left turn and not the right turn.