Google Maps screwed up badly yesterday
Google Maps is normally very good especially in providing up to date information whilst on the move. However, it has recently slipped up very badly regarding the A57 where it crosses the River Trent on the Lincolnshire - Nottinghamshire border at what is known as Dunham Bridge. The bridge was closed last week due to flooding on its access roads but re-opened last Friday, 12/1/24. Yesterday, I asked Google Maps for a route from near Skellingthorpe, Lincoln, to Bolsover, Derbyshire. I knew that Dunham Bridge was fully open again yet Google had it as still closed, 5 days after it re-opened, and wanted me to take a significant diversion via Newark. I ignored that diversion and headed for Dunham Bridge. All the way, Google Maps kept trying to divert me towards Newark. Even when I had the bridge in sight, and clearly open, it wanted me to do a U-turn!!! The bridge and road were very quiet, presumably because other drivers had followed Google Maps. When I mentioned all this to the staff in the toll booths, they said they had already been in contact with Google to inform them that the bridge had been open for 5 days. How long does it take Google to absorb such information about a critical trunk road? 4 hours later we returned and Google still wanted us to divert via Newark! Something seriously went wrong at Google and I hope it doesn't happen again.
On another point, why does Google, and other sat navs, seem incapable of correcting a route in a common sense way. Too often, it tries to take you back to the point where you didn't follow its instruction even if that means a massive detour rather than simply updating the route. Here is a classic example of how non-sensical it can get:
If I want to get from home to the above Dunham Bridge, I have a choice of three similar routes to reach the A57 and thence on to the bridge. Google usually sends me via the village of Doddington, via the A46 Lincoln bypass and the B1190, which joins the A57 just to the east of Drinsey Nook. If the A46 is busy, I sometimes take an alternative, shorter route through the village of Skellingthorpe and then follow the back road to join the A57 at the railway/canal bridge at Saxilby. I then continue west, along the A57 to Drinsey Nook. The distance, along the A57 from Saxilby to where the B1190 joins is approximately 2.5 km. What Google Maps has done to me is, that when I have reached the A57 at Saxilby via Skellingthorpe, it directs me back towards Lincoln to join the A46, follow it to the Doddington roundabout then take the B1190 through Doddington village to join the A57 near Drinsey Nook. I estimate this "detour" to be about 19 km. That is utterly absurd. How can a guidance system send you 19 km when, if you go the oppiste way, it is only 2.5 km? Google need to look at this. The use of algorithms which take you back to where you didn't follow the route and involve substsantial extra distance are clearly of little value and need to be reviewed.
It is clearly in Google's interest to provide accurate, up to date and common sense routes to its users but it didn't yesterday.
17 januari 2024
Review zonder uitnodiging