[nostrademons]

I've noticed that Google Maps has started sucking a lot lately, routing us onto routes that take 2-4 minutes longer when a faster route is clearly available or taking us on nonsensical detours, and I wonder if this experiment is a reason why.

There's a hidden cost to this, and that's trust in the mapping app. I've stopped using Google Navigation for routine trips where I know how to get to the destination. It used to be worth it for the traffic information, but now that there's a good chance that it'll take you on a slower route for reasons that may be beneficial to Google but detrimental to you, it's not worth it. My brother-in-law switched to Apple Maps for similar reasons: he's finding it simply gives better results nowadays.

[dpacmittal]

I've noticed this too. It has gotten more frequent over last year or so. It will route me to narrow roads which I know for a fact will take me much longer.

I had the worst experience about 3 weeks ago, when I kept driving on very narrow and congested roads for almost 3 hours and the destination was showing still an hour away. If I had just taken the normal route, it would've taken me only 2 hours total. But Google thought let's make this guy drive around for 4 hours because fuck him.

[dr_kretyn]

Same. Though it's been happening for maybe a year? Or, at least since I learned where things actually are. I just can't trust the Google maps anymore! Many times I lost 10+ min because it took me through weird alley and then back to the main.