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Google Maps Under Fire for Offering Users the Fastest Route to Destination

As the world’s number one navigation app, Google Maps comes with essential settings for providing users with a route to their destination, so for example, you can configure the app to avoid highways, ferries, and toll roads.
Google Maps on Android 1 photo
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But other than that, Google Maps provides users with the fastest route to their destinations, and this is something that’s been configured to work exactly like this by design.

This is actually a big annoyance, some users now claim, as their own routes are ignored and Google Maps just keeps providing them with the fastest route, even if they want to use other roads.

Google Maps adopters, including several motorcycle owners, turned to Google’s forums to explain why the fastest route setting isn’t always the best way to go.

This is one of the most frustrating ‘features’ I’ve ever come across. I am presented options of routes before I start driving, I select one and then within a few minutes it’s trying to turn me around because it’s not as fast as one of the options that I purposefully did not select. To make matters worse it says ‘if you want to stay on your current route tap no’. Where I am from It is illegal to touch your phone while driving and where it is legal it is highly dangerous,” someone says.

Others emphasize that interacting with Google Maps when driving, or while riding a motorcycle, is obviously very dangerous and often illegal, so the app should just retain the navigation settings and route that the user picked before leaving.

Needless to say, Google hasn’t responded to the thread that has tens of Google Maps users complaining about this feature, so it remains to be seen if the company wants to correct this behavior or not.

The easiest way to resolve the whole thing is to add extra route options, similar to what our old-school GPS devices offered back in the days when Google Maps didn’t even exist.
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About the author: Bogdan Popa
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Bogdan keeps an eye on how technology is taking over the car world. His long-term goals are buying an 18-wheeler because he needs more space for his kid’s toys, and convincing Google and Apple that Android Auto and CarPlay deserve at least as much attention as their phones.
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