Photo: Softpedia
Google Maps continues to be the number one navigation app across the world, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that everything is working exactly as users expect it to work.
And the living proof is the way Google Maps determines the route to a user-defined destination.
As we reported not a long time ago, Google Maps always offers the fastest route, something that many users think shouldn’t happen, especially if they just want to go on another road.
The bigger problem, however, is that the app keeps providing this fastest route periodically, even when driving, with a prompt showing up on the screen requiring input from the user to avoid activating it. In other words, unless users specifically refuse the fastest route, Google Maps just enables it and takes them on a different path to their destination.
Since we first reported this controversial behavior in Google Maps, more users turned to Google’s forums to explain how this feature sometimes puts their lives at risk.
“I almost crashed today because I was trying to get my route back while driving on highway because stupid navigation keeps changing the route, even though it once even asked if I wanted to change it and I clicked ‘no thanks,’” someone says on Google’s forums.
“The worst incident was taking us over a literal mountain through a forest preserve during a snowstorm instead of staying on the main roads for an ‘8 minute faster route’ that almost got us killed and added 25 minutes to our journey,” someone else adds.
In some cases, the ones requesting Google to change how this feature works are motorcycle owners, as they explain that interacting with the regular prompt that keeps showing up on the screen forces them to stop on the side of the road and remove their gloves. Otherwise, Google Maps just keeps switching to the fastest route automatically, that is.
Google is yet to acknowledge this problem, so it’s still too early to tell if the company is planning any changes in this regard or not.
As we reported not a long time ago, Google Maps always offers the fastest route, something that many users think shouldn’t happen, especially if they just want to go on another road.
The bigger problem, however, is that the app keeps providing this fastest route periodically, even when driving, with a prompt showing up on the screen requiring input from the user to avoid activating it. In other words, unless users specifically refuse the fastest route, Google Maps just enables it and takes them on a different path to their destination.
Since we first reported this controversial behavior in Google Maps, more users turned to Google’s forums to explain how this feature sometimes puts their lives at risk.
“I almost crashed today because I was trying to get my route back while driving on highway because stupid navigation keeps changing the route, even though it once even asked if I wanted to change it and I clicked ‘no thanks,’” someone says on Google’s forums.
“The worst incident was taking us over a literal mountain through a forest preserve during a snowstorm instead of staying on the main roads for an ‘8 minute faster route’ that almost got us killed and added 25 minutes to our journey,” someone else adds.
In some cases, the ones requesting Google to change how this feature works are motorcycle owners, as they explain that interacting with the regular prompt that keeps showing up on the screen forces them to stop on the side of the road and remove their gloves. Otherwise, Google Maps just keeps switching to the fastest route automatically, that is.
Google is yet to acknowledge this problem, so it’s still too early to tell if the company is planning any changes in this regard or not.
Google News