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Comment by stuff4ben | Hacker News Reader

Waze detoured me onto some backroads while traveling I40 through Tennessee for no apparent reason a few weeks ago. I checked with Google Maps and Apple Maps and neither of them took me off I40. It was ok though, was getting sleepy and the twisty backroads going up to NC woke me up and put a smile on my face.

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I stopped using Waze last year after it started consistently giving me bad directions that would add 30-60 minutes to my commute. After a few weeks of that, I just gave up. Before that, it would periodically give me bad directions and I assumed that it was sending me on crazy routes because it didn't have any recent data and it needed a victim to check the traffic.

The time it sent me along a street with 2 school zones during bus time was the worst, tho.

What really drives me nutty is when they have a route that goes from A->B->C->D->E and and you can see on the screen A->B->C on the screen. It shows an alternate route from A->B1->C that takes 30 minutes longer. This is the route you'd prefer to take, but you figure there must be traffic, so you stay on the crap route.

But what it's actually done is made a route from A->B1->C->D1->E. The A->B1->C and A->B->C routes are actually similar travel times, it's the C->D1->E route that takes the extra half hour.

This happens way too often in GMaps

In the early days of the iPhone, I had some software that kept offline maps (xGPS, I think) to save on bandwidth and in case you were out of the service area. Anyway, I had a similar experience driving from LA up to near San Luis Obispo. It took me off US101 and up the San Marcos Pass Rd IIRC, and potentially other roads. That was a beautiful drive through hills and vinyards. No idea why it decided to do that, but I'm glad it did!

Sometimes I wonder if Waze sends you a weird way just to test the route to see how it compares. If it's faster, it'll send more people that way. If it's not, it won't suggest it. But someone has to be the Guinea pig the first time.

It might have been okay but yeesh I hate that navigation apps do this.

They will randomly reroute you through a labrynth to save you a minute. Happened to me all the time when I lived in Dc/Nova and I learned not to listen to the app

With all honest Waze works well in the city, but when I'm goint in a long travel I still prefer trusting my old garmin gps unit.

I usually trust Google Maps to give me the standard way to get somewhere that I've never been to or know anything about, no weird shortcuts or crazy backroads. I use Waze when I'm trying to get somewhere that I already know the general direction and highways I should take but want the quicker backroads and crazy shortcuts.

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