I am amazed at Googles ineptitude here. Wouldn't you put some kind of warning or notification in place to notice an unusual amount of user reports and turn this feature off if necessary or block it in a specific region?
This is a service which is supposedly responsible for about 11 billion in Googles revenue [1] and apparently has no Spam protection.
Waze, owned by Google, does this by asking other drivers to confirm reports on the ground. I don't recall Google Maps doing this.
madcaptenor · 16h ago
Google Maps does this in the US. But I've heard that it has different features in different places.
PeterStuer · 18h ago
Android auto has incorporated this 'feature' in maps.
joezydeco · 17h ago
I get the feeling these two systems don't talk at all.
I've used GMaps for navigation while on vacation in remote areas and the routing will be completely different than Waze, even when settings are made identical when it comes to time-vs-distance, avoid tolls, etc. Waze is much, much better.
PeterStuer · 14h ago
I use maps from android auto. I have never had Waze. I get requests on my screen to confirm an obstacle, a traffic jam or a police speed check is still there. I'm not claiming it is shared code, just shsred 'features'.
hulitu · 20h ago
> Chaos on German autobahns as Google Maps wrongly says they are closed
... and some people cannot use their brains and have to rely on Google to do it for them.
dmonitor · 19h ago
If google maps told you a main road was closed, would your first instinct be to suspect that google maps is lying to you for the first time since you started using it? I'd sooner suspect a meteor landed on the road.
FinnKuhn · 17h ago
Especially as Thursday (the day this happened) is a public holiday in Germany, where bigger projects that require a complete closing of the highway (e.g. demolition of an old bridge) are often done to impact traffic as little as possible.
hulitu · 15h ago
i don't use Google Maps for guidance. Google Maps was never built to do this. It was added as a "feature", but still does not work well, for the data it collects.
para_parolu · 19h ago
If the task is to create fastest route between German cities avoiding current and future traffic and also avoid road closures. How would you use your brain to solve it in reasonable time?
potato3732842 · 18h ago
Because that isn't actually the task. you don't need the fastest, just "good enough".
So you'll pick the major highways and follow any detour signage like you would have in the old days.
kjkjadksj · 17h ago
In the area where I live traffic planners have shored up all the inefficiencies that led to those apps saving you time in the past. Road diets. Right turn only out of side streets with a hardened median preventing a left or straight route. Speed bumps. Downright punitive light cycle timing (I’ve seen almost 5 minutes before). You often fare far worse in fact taking those labyrinthine google maps/waze circuits through these residential side streets and shed time just sticking on the major arterials and highways.
jorgen123 · 19h ago
Was the chaos on the Autobahn? The article say it was on alternate routes. Was the Autobahn blessed with light traffic as a result?
4gotunameagain · 17h ago
Yes, as clearly stated in the linked article.
jorgen123 · 17h ago
Missed that "traffic was mostly flowing freely". Thanks.
AStonesThrow · 14h ago
iPhones only. For a brief, shining moment, there was an Android-free Autobahn. Express lanes to the Apple Store.
This is a service which is supposedly responsible for about 11 billion in Googles revenue [1] and apparently has no Spam protection.
[1] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/google-maps-poised-11-billion...
I've used GMaps for navigation while on vacation in remote areas and the routing will be completely different than Waze, even when settings are made identical when it comes to time-vs-distance, avoid tolls, etc. Waze is much, much better.
So you'll pick the major highways and follow any detour signage like you would have in the old days.