In the growing list of software that’s getting worse it seems like Google Maps and Google Navigation has made the list. Tell me if you noticed it too.

I live in the San Francisco Bay area which is huge and complex. Google navigation is a must even if I know where to go because it routes me around traffic problems that could get me stuck for hours. But in the last few months Google Maps is doing weird stuff. It get’s it wrong on most every highway intersection.

First it correctly tells me to get off at the exit, that’s fine. But when I do that it then thinks I missed the exit – reroutes – and gives me instructions as if I’m still on the highway. After a few more seconds it realizes that I did exit the highway and it reroutes again by the time I get to the end of the exit ramp.

But them I make a let turn and cross over the highway and it then thinks I’m back on the highway – reroutes again – and gives me wrong directions. Then after passing the highway it reroutes again and it’s normal.

Another thing it does it I’m stopped at a red light and not moving and it thinks I turned around and heading in the opposite direction.

This is happening a lot – more often than not – and it didn’t used to be that way. It used to just work, more or less. I keep waiting for them to fix it but they don’t And friends are seeing it too. Some are thinking – Apple! Nooooooo!

These software problem are easily fixed. They could add code so that the phone assumes that you did the right thing until it is sufficiently sure you didn’t. For example. If I was going in the right direction at a stop light and the GPS things I wen’t 1 mph in the opposite direction then it should ignore that unless I’m moved a significant distance in the wrong direction.

If I get off the highway on a ramp and the GPS isn’t sure if I’m on the ramp or highway it’s should assume I took the ramp until it is sure I didn’t. That would eliminate the annoying any confusing and unnecessary rerouting that it’s doing now.



  1. J. Alfred Prufrock says:

    The bug is from the code the NSA added so it can track you.

  2. Road Rage says:

    Oh please! Get a map and use some gray matter. Or have you already stopped using your brain and now rely on someone or something else to tell you what to do, how to do it and WHERE TO GO?

    When people start bitching about their cell phones leading them in wrong directions and refuse to wake up to the more important things in life, I’m convinced society is heading in a very wrong direction. Portable technology that distracts a person’s ATTENTION might very well be considered as another form of DRUG! It’s only a matter of time before some clever money hungry municipality/law enforcement agency actually does this and busts your ass for driving while your ability is impaired (DWAI)! It may have already happened.

    I see it all the time and it’s nearly killed me more than once! Needless to say it pisses me off. So if I see you doing it I will probably slap you hard enough to hear bells and then I’ll break your phone! Because here’s the thing, using a phone in a MOVING VEHICLE THAT CAN KILL SOMEONE is not just stupid, IT’S DANGEROUS!!! So wake the fuck up or someone like me might just give you what you deserve — a permanent dirt nap! (Unintentional, of course.)

    … I hope your digital masters never fix this and it gets worse. I hope there will be an even bigger GPS glitch that will lead you all off a cliff ONE BY ONE! And you know it will happen because none of you look where the fuck you’re going. You all seem to think you’re in your goddamn living room playing a video game or something. I’m here to tell you that your NOT! So if you wind up fucking with me on the road because Google told you to or something then there will be hell to pay — and I’m NOT ALONE!

    • jpfitz says:

      Good rant, add some humor and you could have embodied George Carlin.

      It should be driving while attention impaired. Still DWAI.

      What about all the new automobiles coming out with large touch screen monitors in the center of the dash?

      People driving should only be looking at the road, rear and side mirrors, and the gauges. That’s it, no excuses. Oh, and the blind spot when passing, or exiting and entering a highway. Only exception I can think of is to glance over at the legs or breasts of the good looking woman in the passenger seat while stopped at a traffic light. Sorry ladies, us men are all alike. I still get out to open the door for ya.

    • I.Dohno says:

      Good idea Road Rage, I’ll just stop by my local filling station and pick up a current map and a grape Nehi.

      • ± says:

        Yum. Grape was my favorite. Got a big-assed bottle for $.25. On a sweltering summer day, this was heaven.

    • spsffan says:

      2 – Chez!

      But you left out “Get off my lawn.”

      The funny thing is that people drove all around the San Francisco Bay Area for decades without the use of Google Maps. Heck, they did it without even cell phones at all. Before route 85 was completed even! Imagine!

      We did have sources of directions though. We called them wives and mother-in-laws.

  3. Grammar Police says:

    This post needs some serious editing. I almost stoped after “get’s it wrong” but I managed to strugle through the rest of it.

    I know you’re angry at Google Maps and everything – but slow down and read your stuff before you post it. Everyone will take you more seriously.

  4. mjs says:

    what about the fact that google navigation dropped its step-by-step feature, so now you never get an overview of what’s coming up unless you stop and study the map? step-by-step was much quicker and easier to follow.

  5. Tim says:

    It is just a little digital preentropsia, here at the end of all things. Just go with the flow.

    Deteriorata:
    http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ey6ugTmCYMk

  6. jpfitz says:

    Marc, I don’t know if you tried reverting to the previous version of google maps. That should fix it.

    Destructions on how to revert back. Yeah, that’s how I spell it.
    http://youtube.com/watch?v=-HIrm4U0Olc

    Funny elderly dude using google walk.
    http://youtube.com/watch?v=bDb_ElXJZGE

  7. John says:

    A similar thing happens to me with walking directions and Google maps. And, it might just be the kool-aid talking, but I don’t have this problem using Apple Maps on my iPhone 5.

  8. jpfitz says:

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=uodtTnSH4vw

    Holy shit. i i i. Crazy lady

  9. Semantics says:

    From your previous post I believe the problem is that you are too stupid to use a computer or smartphone.

  10. MikeN says:

    Perhaps is deliberate sabotage by Apple. Samsung should make their own map software quick. Those latest commercials are really annoying Cupertino.

  11. Ian says:

    I live in Brooklyn. Google Maps aggressively tries to route me through tolls, even if the toll road is by far the worst option. I have screen shots of it trying to take me on a 40 minute detour out of and back into Manhattan for a three block trip, just so I could return through the Lincoln Tunnel. Driving from Queens to Brooklyn needs no Manhattan detour, but Maps always defaults to a route in one toll tunnel and out of another. Once it tried to get me to u-turn on the Manhattan Bridge (free, and no way to u-turn) to steer me through the Battery Tunnel (tolls, again). I know the app is free, but kickbacks are no way to pay for it.


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