Do you ever disagree with computer nav routes?

We don’t tend to use computer nav very often, but sometimes when we do, we are surprised at the suggested route.

One we encounter often involves how to get onto a major area highway - 294 N - from our home. The intersection is to the northeast of us. The route we generally take involves going north, then east, then north, and then east again. The route Google always gives us has us go SOUTH a couple of blocks, then east to a point PAST the intersection, then north, and then back west. (There are a couple of slight angles involved. One N stretch on my route goes slightly NW, and one E stretch on their route is slightly NE. But I do not think either is significantly shorter/quicker in terms of time or distance. And both involve roughly the same number of stop signs and streetlights.)

I doubt there is more than a couple of minute difference between the two routes, but it always surprises us that the computer does not advise what is - in our opinion - a somewhat better route (and a route we have driven several hundreds of times.). I would’ve thought that at least occasionally traffic conditions would cause it to suggest “our” route, but it never seems to.

Any thoughts as to what causes nav systems to recommend a route other than what you might consider the most obvious one?

I also do not use navigation very often. One of the first times I did was to get to a far away hotel for a convention. Google maps had me exit the freeway at the edge of the city and drive a straight path through secondary rural roads then go partway through the inner city and rejoin the highway which had made a right turn in the meantime. So it took the hypotenuse. Looking over the path when I went back home I just stayed on the highway. Vastly easier if technically a bit longer.

I had the same experience with Google maps a few weeks ago. I had to pick something up at a store in a fairly large city, and as I approached the nav took me off the 80 mph freeway (no joke) directly into town were I drove in heavy traffic at 5-10 mph for 20 minutes, through many traffic lights, to reach the store when I could have stayed on the freeway for 5 more minutes and then exit into the city for a quick 5 minute drive to the store.

This doesn’t usually happen for longer trips where I have found Google to be pretty good at figuring out the fastest route given the various road speeds, time of day, and expected traffic.I think it gets confused when you are approaching a town with lots of exits, streets, and options, and just picks what it thinks is the shortage distance regardless of the traffic.

Back before GPSes, it would be pretty common for my parents to argue with each other over which route to take. Then they got a GPS, and the arguments became three-sided.

I think a significant factor is how long the computer nav software thinks it takes to travel a route. For me it seems it is generally accurate for the Interstate routes but overestimates the time needed for secondary routes.

It does seem that the default setting in Google nav is least distance. There are tweaks you can make to that.

One factor they don’t seem to include is complexity. In a nearly regular grid it will sometimes favor a stairsrep appeoach turning at each block over e.g. 5 blocks N then 5 blocks E w one turn. To their data the former route might be 200 ft shorter.

I don’t recall what program it was, but it was a couple of decades or more ago - I was plotting a trip from our place to a friend’s house. I knew the way but I wanted a time estimate. For whatever reason, the program would have had us go about 30 miles past our destination to cross a bridge and double back. I have no idea why it didn’t take us off the interstate where we needed to exit.

Truly stupid.

I don’t know what qualities Google nav has as I use a dedicated GPS for navigation, not a smartphone. It’s generally pretty good, and is invaluable for navigating in unfamiliar places, especially navigating in unfamiliar urban areas where I’m either trying to find an address or trying to get from that address to the nearest freeway. It has tweaks for least distance, fastest time, or avoiding toll roads (well, avoiding “the” one and only toll road that exists around here).

The disagreements tend to arise when for some reason it feels I should take city streets to get from A to B and I know it would (probably) be faster to get on a freeway, even if it was congested. It eventually gives up and goes along with my choice.

Every decent routing software uses least time as the default setting. The problem is, it’s hard to get an accurate estimate of the time it takes to traverse each road segment.

My cite is: I worked on car navigation software for my entire professional career, though I’m now retired.

I dissent with the computed route all the time if it’s in an area that I know. Our GPS likes to pretend it’s no big deal to make a left on a busy suburban local fourlane at intersections that lack a stoplight. It’s also obsessed with highways, to the point of diverting the driver six minutes in the opposite direction to the destination, to go two exits and get back off.

Other times, I admire the creative solutions. For long trips we’ve used Google Maps and specified “no tolls” and made use of the tricks and diversions and saved a lot of money. And the GPS has pointed us down little alleys and parking lots for a quick point of access to some major expressway.

All the time. My biggest grievance is where it advises you to cut a corner instead of going ahead a bit farther to make a left at a major intersection. In turn, what happens is, is that if you follow their suggestion, instead of making a protected left turn at a traffic light ( with arrows that allow traffic to turn before greenlighting opposing traffic ), you end up having to make two left turns, unprotected from opposing traffic. Heavy traffic.

I’d rather wait at a traffic light, even if it takes two light changes, than having to make two risky left turns.

Ditto to everything in this post i routinely use Google maps, even when i know the route well, because it sometimes gives me useful traffic info. And i routinely ignore what it says for local driving. It wants me to make an uncomfortably sharp right turn into a highway near my home, and i take back roads, which might add a minute to my trip, but it’s no more miles, it’s prettier, and it’s less stressful. I often ignore the stairstep things.

But on Thursday, i ignored its stairstep advice and waited a really long time at a light i would have avoided if I’d followed its route. It wasn’t an area i drive in often.

Anyway, i love Google maps, but consider it to be making suggestions and reminders, not orders.

My funniest one was driving home from visiting my brother’s family near Boston. I had never driven the route before, so was trusting my GPS almost completely.

At one point, there was a transition from Highway X to Highway Y. It had me take the off-ramp, drive straight across the intersection, and then take the on-ramp back to the same highway I’d been driving on.

It turns out it was the same physical highway, but for whatever reason, the name changed at that point, and the GPS seemed to think the off/on ramps were the only way to get from one to the other.

We’ll know we’ve achieved true AGI when any program can handle Boston streets correctly. Though once it had me do that trick which saved a few minutes on a very busy interstate.

I’ve run into the same problems mentioned here, which I especially notice when Google Maps is on for the final step in an area I’m pretty familiar with. I’d rather make a straight run down a major street and then turn left onto another major one than cut through all sorts of suburban back roads. In my town they put up extra stop signs in a few places to keep Google Maps from directing people through back streets to avoid a crowded interstate. It go so bad people couldn’t get out of their driveways during rush hour. The stop signs slowed the route enough that Google put people back on the freeway.

When I go to Chicago I stay with a friend who lives in Evanston. When she drives me to O’Hare she goes west on Howard Ave. Her GPS insists that she go west on Touhy instead, which she refuses to do because she hates driving on Touhy. So our attempts at conversation are constantly being interrupted by her GPS telling her to turn left at every major intersection, and in some cases even telling her to make a u-turn to go back to where it wants her to turn.

I’m at the other end of the spectrum. I use Google Maps almost every day. I enjoy being told when to turn, so I can sort of zone out and drive.

Even if I’m not actively using Google Maps, I allow it to run in the background. It’s cool to see my monthly statistics; which day I travelled the most, which day I had the most stops, etc. My timeline is fun to review.

I trust my own knowledge of how to deviate from the obvious route on my very frequent journey. The satnav keeps wanting to send me back onto the road I already left. There was a good reason for leaving it.

There have been a few times when I’ve been directed to get off the freeway, drive a frontage road for short distance, and get back on at the next intersection. Very annoying.

This was the point I was going to make, and it applies to many other pathing software programs and apps. But, and fair credit, it’ll also normally give alternate routes based on secondary requirements. In my case, I’ve tried some of the side options, and they are shorter, but if I factor time getting on/off the interstate, fewer lanes and (increasingly a concern for many drivers) lack of decent cellular signal on said more direct route, I’ll stick to the interstate option which is a few miles (or more) longer, but with fewer concerns.

One time I was using GPS in Las Vegas, and it kept wanting me to use Las Vegas Blvd (The Strip), because it’s the biggest road in the area, and all the major properties front on it.

But anyone who has spent any time in Vegas knows the Strip is a traffic nightmare. Rule number one is to only use it when you absolutely have to use it, unless you’re just playing tourist. There are roads east of the strip that will get you most of the way to any strip location much faster.