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Comment by voisin | Hacker News Reader

I use Apple Maps as my primary GPS in my vehicle. I have spent the last few years on the road driving across North America and Google Maps repeatedly made objectively incorrect decisions in rural areas that would take me in quasi-off road situations. After I got frustrated being led astray I started comparing routes on both and found that it seems to be a logic issue for Google Maps, where it would save 5 km of distance and not recognize the unpaved backroads with tons of twists and turns would add significant time. Apple Maps somehow did recognize this.

I only kept Google Maps installed for info on things along a route or opening hours but since then I’ve deleted it and just use Duck Duck Go to do searches, combined with Apple Maps for GPS.

Edit: one more thing: in the city I am from there has been a lot of development. Google is missing a ton of roads in near areas where Apple Maps is not.

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The bad choices in rural areas for Google Maps seems to be a recent thing. My guess is that it's a result of a new approach of combining computer vision of satellite imagery with phone location data from ranchers driving on their private dirt roads.

Google Maps took me down all sorts of goofy unpacked backroads in Crete this past month. It’d cut the driving distance in half and double the driving time. Although my Fiat Panda rental did surprisingly well on uneven, unpaved roads.

Had the exact same experience with Google Maps in Crete! Although already a few years ago.

I had the same experience even in Santa Clara County. Google maps led me to drive on unpaved roads along the farms near Gilroy in order to avoid the congested 101. It's not worthwhile, and I'd argue Google should expose an option to let me express my preference.

We probably shouldn't be surprised that a navigation app that tells you to make left turns during rush hour in San Francisco doesn't behave any more rationally in rural areas that aren't a stone's throw away from the company's own headquarters.

Being able to express your preference isn't what Google is all about. Their attitude is that they know best.

I had the same in Italy (Tuscany) with Google Maps. One way it recommended a longer normal road, on the way back it was a shorter dirt road through fields and forests. Had to stop once to let a fox cross the road (it didn't seem to care much about me). In the end it took as much time if not more.

Those rental Pandas can take you everywhere though.

i've also experienced this in a major german city. it's awful how bad google has become since this update. apple maps works as expected

And that is absolutely what I would expect from Google: clueless, heavy-handed of the latest shiny technology rather than using existing methods and data that were working perfectly.

Yep there are many private roads and driveways being shown as part of the road network. Google treats private roads as just roads. (Which is a pretty good analogy for how they treat private information as just information, but I'm being flippant.) I'm waiting for the wrongful-death suit by the family of the shot trespasser.

An apt analogy, and I think your discussion of private roads / driveways is accurate as to what the problem is.

I will never forget being led from a highway, to a side road, to a gravel road, to a rougher gravel road, to a one lane gravel road, to something that looked like a washed out river at best, only to be blocked by a large steer standing in the middle of the "road" that appeared to be as stunned by my presence there as I was. I ended up having to reverse quite a bit before I could find somewhere to turn around. I deleted Google Maps shortly thereafter.

I think that's probably because Apple doesn't even know that backroads existed so Apple Maps couldn't optimize the route.

If Apple Maps had knew those backroards, they would probably output the same routes! :-D

I thought that might be the case but when I zoom in I can see the back roads in Apple Maps. I am pretty sure it is a algorithm issue. Google doesn’t have enough data about how slow those back roads are and maybe relies on that data more than Apple does.

> objectively incorrect decisions in rural areas that would take me in quasi-off road situations

I would pay money for this feature.

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