Before Android debuted its first-ever turn-by-turn navigation system with real-time GPS tracking, people used third-party devices offered by TomTom and Garmin, or built-in navigation systems inside vehicles’ infotainment systems.
Maybe you were the type of person to print out a bunch of Google Maps instructions to keep in your vehicle, but the advent of “free” navigation software that didn’t require a monthly subscription or additional application purchase for smartphones, didn’t exist before October 28, 2009 when Android 2.0 got released.
Since then, everyone has had a personal GPS in their pocket, and it’s become almost a foregone conclusion that everyone with an Android or iOS device can navigate to wherever they need to go.
But software, at the end of the day, is designed by imperfect beings, and users of navigation apps like Google Maps or Apple Maps have reported strange directions they’ve been asked to follow when on their routes. Something that TikToker @jpall20 believes has gotten worse over the years.
In a video that’s acquired over 690,000 views as of Sunday, she theorizes there may be some “powers that be” making drivers question their sanity with the roundabout routes in these navigation apps.
@jpall20 Why is everything broken lmao #googlemaps #applemaps #waze #direction ♬ Suspicious, slow and simple song – Kohrogi
“Is anybody else concerned that Google Maps and Apple Maps both seem to have no idea what they’re talking about now?” she says. “I drive a lot for work and this happens to me very often so for this one I know that I’m not crazy. I’ll be driving and it’ll be like turn right on Willow Street and then I’ll get to Willow Street and it’ll be like turn left on Willow Street, I’m like b*tch I know that you said right.”
She says how it happens “multiple times a day,” citing more examples.
“I’m just convinced at this point that whoever they are, they are inserting things into like everyday life to make us question our fucking sanity,” she continues. “Because that, that wasn’t always a thing. That just started happening within like the last, I don’t know maybe like year, six months, that these maps have no idea where we’re going.”
It seems that other TikTok users also experienced these same, roundabout, nonsensical navigation instructions from Google and Apple Maps.
“Apple Maps once made me exit the freeway, just to get right back on,” one person said.
Another user said that they’ve experienced this very same phenomenon as well, writing, “Google maps will just randomly take me off the highway for fun then put me back on the same highway.”
Searching for businesses also doesn’t seem to be these applications’ strong suit, either. “Yes or trying to find the closet gas station and sends you to one 5 min away as you casually pass one,” one said.
Someone else suggested that Google and Apple are colluding with gasoline companies so that users end up driving more and thus spend more money on fuel expenditures. “I have always said that Google and Apple Maps are in cahoots with the gas companies,” someone alleged.
It appeared like the biggest complaint folks had was navigation applications taking them off route just to put them back on the same route. “Apple maps has tried taking me through a parking lot right next to the road I’m already on, just to get back on THE SAME ROAD!!” a user exclaimed.
There are several explanations for why certain navigation solutions may be taking users every which way before they ultimately end up at their destination. Garmin’s website provided one reason why its GPS navigation software takes folks off the highway to muck it up on local roads. It has to do with setting the route preferences to favor a short distance over a fast travel time. While one may think that picking a shorter distance may ultimately result in a faster total traveling time, this isn’t the case when you’re driving at highway speeds versus local speeds.
The navigation software may ultimately try to have users get off on the highway to save a fifth of a mile or so. “If the device’s route preference or calculation mode is set to Shorter Distance, this may cause the device to guide you off of a highway in order to navigate a more direct route. Setting the route preference to Faster Time may make a difference in how the device calculates a route,” website states.
In Google’s community forums, it seems that other users have experienced this issue of being directed off of a highway just to get put back again, but the moderator in this specific instance didn’t seem to be of too much help in providing a possible explanation for the app’s behavior.
One Redditor managed to snap a screenshot of their Google Maps application acting foolish as well. The image shows that the application effectively doubled the length of the traveler’s trip, asking that they drive to one point of the highway, take the exit, drive on the other side of the highway, just to take another exit to get back on their original traveling direction.
“Why does Google Maps occasionally tell me to exit the freeway, turn around, drive back to the entrance, and get back on it again as part of my route?” the user asked.
A fellow Reddit member responded to the post with an explanation a few people uploaded which seems to be a reasonable explanation for why the app wasn’t functioning properly.
“There is an error underlying routing network. Likely an intersection isn’t snapped together correctly so to the routing engine doesn’t see it as an intersection. It looks for the next ‘best’ route but it doesn’t make sense in the real world,” they wrote.
There have been business owners who’ve noticed online that Google Maps, for instance, has accidentally attributed the wrong coordinates for the location of their company, and they’ve showed how to address this problem online in a video tutorial here.
In fact, Google acknowledges that its navigation tools aren’t perfect, either, and has urged folks to submit their suggestions in correcting directions to specific locations as well if you’re on Android. And if you’re looking at these directions on your computer, then check out this link to submit a correction to navigation instructions.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Google and Apple via email and @jpall20 via TikTok comment.