There’ve been times when Google Maps gave me an estimated time of arrival (“8:06 PM”) and I would do the math and realize that that was impossible unless I were driving significantly above the speed limit. Even when I went 15-18 mph above the speed limit (as drivers are wont to do here in this region,) that estimated time of arrival would barely budge on the app.
Is Google Maps assuming everyone is blazing above the limit at all times?
I’ve not found that to be true. It’s eerily accurate, and I rarely exceed the speed limit. I’m curious if others see what the OP is seeing.
No, in my experience, it calculates at speed limit or lower if traffic is slow. I drive the speed limit, so it’s easy to compare.
I do not know how they calculate the time but my assumption has always been that Google collects the data of people driving on the route you are taking and calculates the average speed (basically the traffic flow). One person with a flat tire limping along and another speed demon are either lost in the average or the algorithm tosses the outliers on either side.
It is probably likely that most people drive with the traffic flow which is probably some over the speed limit on an expressway (assuming no traffic jam).
I drive the speed limit on local roads, my wife believe 10 mph over is the minimum.
On a 4.7 mile route we take very often (like 300 times a year each way) Google Maps estimates 11 minutes for me and 9 minutes for her. This is pretty much the minimum time it actually takes us.
The maximum speed limit on this route is 35 mph and many sections are 20 or 25. There are two stop signs to cross busy arterial roads.
There is no way anyone could drive that route in 9 minutes without doing 50 in the 35s and 35 in the 25s.
But on a route of 240 miles almost 100% on highways with speed limits of 60 if 65, the estimated time (and actual time) for her is longer than for me. That’s because I’m the highway I will do 10 over the speed limit if traffic is light and she almost never goes over 65.
But if traffic is bad, her time will be shorter. Because you can actually gain time by frequent lane changes, which I avoid on the highway.
My conclusion is that Google Maps is using my actual driving behavior as a guide.
I stopped using Waze because it’s constantly trying to take you through residential neighborhoods with 25/30 mph limits to take 1/2 mile off your route on arterials with 40/45 limits.
You can have Waze and Google Maps on dude by side and they give you different directions with Waze recommending smaller roads more often.
Is Google Maps giving the “speeding” ETA before you begin the trip?
My wife and I went on a 7K mile road trip this summer, driving vast distances on empty highways, and it seemed that the app I was using (Apple Maps) was adjusting its estimates based on real time measurements of my current speed (or perhaps a rolling average).
I would assume Google Maps does similar.
Then again, it would be kind of cool and creepy if Google Maps does profile each of us and give us a “speeding coefficient”.
ETA: I realized that our devices are all pinging Google or Apple all along the way, so they know the average speed of cars on each section of road, so it’s most likely that, and not some sinister “speeding coefficient”
Easy to test. Make sure you are logged in to your Google account. What time do you see for the following route:
The White House —> Mar-a-Lago Club
I get 14h 43m (996 miles)
This has been my experience as well. Sometimes I get caught in traffic and the estimated time of arrival gets bumped up a minute or two. Then if I get past the traffic and go 5 or so over for a little while I’ll get the minute or two back.
This was my assumption, as well. When I’ve driven the speed limit on highway that is typically going 10-15 mph over the limit, my time creeps up and up, or at least it seems to be that way to me. It feels I can never gain time over the estimate unless I’m in city traffic and catch a few opportune lights. On the highway, driving my usual 10-15 over gets me there at the time I was supposed to get there. Could be selective memory, I suppose, but that’s the impression I’ve gotten for years.
I don’t think Google maps makes any moral or legal judgements or calculations but just does the math and gives you the answer irrespective of the speed limit, but the assumed speed you will be traveling at on any given road commonly based on your personal history and historical speed of other drivers. I have noticed that the ETA is gives my wife is usually a bit longer than it gives me, we frequently take a trip that we will take the same route and her time will be apx 5 minutes longer then mine.
I drive the speed limit around our home, a bit over on the highway. The ETA they give me is so accurate it’s scary.
I get 14h 42m (997 miles). Note that these times can vary as conditions change (accidents, weather, different times of day, etc.)
Y’all are getting much more accurate ETA numbers than I do, but I live in a metropolitan area, so I get it. Usually I add 5-10 minutes to what Google is estimating and I drive above the speed limit.
What I don’t get is when GMaps offers pointless “alternate” routes while driving that are not improvements (“about the same time” or somesuch it says) and completely gratuitous. (My favorite is one to get off the highway, only to get back on the highway at the same exit, all to LOSE 2 minutes. Why are you giving me that as an option? There’s no traffic or anything!")
If I put in a future date (departing 9/18 at 10:00 am) it tells me the ‘typical’ time is still 14h 42m. So that’s not taking any current conditions into account, just the average time.
For me, sometimes those “similar ETA” offerings make me choose them out of curiosity. Like, “wait…how could that route possibly have the same ETA?” So I do it and boom, it’s correct.
Google Maps has begun to offer alternate routes that are more fuel efficient even if the times are similar (or even slightly worse). Presumably fewer lights and more right turns.
If I’m on a road trip, I’ll hop onto the “three minutes longer” detours every now and again. Sometimes they really do just loop you through a neighborhood and dump you back on the road you were just on, but they’re often fun little distractions from otherwise monotonous driving.
Yeah. On such a long trip it would not make sense to account for an accident or weather or whatever local conditions that are 400 miles down the road. Those are almost certain to change by the time you get there.
I do know on local trips (say 20 miles) Google accounts for local conditions. Sometimes it even warns me there is an accident ahead with a delay and offers an alternate route.
Like here’s the one that came up a few weeks ago:
I could either stay on I55 (the big blue line) or get off the highway and get right back on it. WTF? This is hardly the first time I’ve seen something like this.
Heh, looks like Google is f*cking with you.
I once asked Siri if she loved me. She began answering, then said, “oh, look, a puppy!”
WAG: There was recently an accident or road construction that caused a significant number of drivers to take the route marked in gray, so Google added it as an alternate.