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Comment by billyruffian | Hacker News Reader

I live on an old farm. I'm connected to a neighbour by a track that is narrow, has a steep drop with no barrier and a ford at the bottom. After decent rain, the ford is more like a full-blown river. It is a public footpath but otherwise is only suitable for quads or farm machinery. There's no way of turning around when you're committed. There is not a road or bridleway, there is no public access unless on foot.

At some point, presumably from satellite imagery, Google decided this was a road.

Now google maps regularly directs folk down my private drive and on to the track where they have a terrifying journey or end up having to be towed by a tractor. No amount of 'report a problem' tickets have resolved this and it's been going on for years now.

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Reminds me of one of my dad's old stories - about a prosperous farmer, who lived on a dirt road. The road had a horrible mud hole a hundred yard or so beyond the farmer's barn.

By day, his farm work was forever being interrupted by optimists and city folks, who had to offer him several dollars to get him to haul their motor cars out of the mud hole. (Back then, several dollars was serious money.)

By night, he never got enough sleep - he was too busy hauling water up from the river, to refresh the mud hole.

This got me good lmao

>No amount of 'report a problem' tickets have resolved this and it's been going on for years now.

Have you tried submitting a correction to the map itself [1] [2]? It may take a while (not sure about Google Maps, but I submitted some corrections to OpenStreetMap a while ago and it took a couple of months before they were reflected in my Garmin GPS) but hopefully should eventually resolve the problem.

Alternatively, there are other means of manipulating Google Maps, such as fake traffic jams [3] that will dynamically reroute traffic around it.

[1] https://support.google.com/maps/answer/10271004?hl=en&co=GEN...

[2] https://support.google.com/maps/thread/124271401/how-to-i-ge...

[3] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/03/berlin-ar...

It may be worth sending them a lawyer's letter threatening to sue for costs and damages (or whatever the lawyer says) unless they fix the issue. It's faster and easier and cheaper for them to placate you than to even send a lawyer's letter back. You don't have to follow through, necessarily - just poke them in the face rather than the ass.

As a non native speaker, at First I thought to myself „why is there a ford (car) at the bottom of the drop“ :D

Why don't you install a gate with a warning?

> why don't you pay money to fix someone else's mistake?

I agree with you, but, well, Google are not being very helpful in this instance.

“It’s not my fault, but it’s my problem” is, like, the cornerstone of adulthood.

There is a gate, with a warning. That stops most of the delivery drivers. Tourists, not so much.

Fair enough. Hope Google will do something about it!

Google will do nothing. I’ve tried for over a decade to get a fake city removed from Google Maps. I’m making the name up but imagine you have a neighborhood near you called Northfield. When google maps started someone from the neighborhood thought it would be great to make up city with the same name.

No amount of complaining will remove it. It only exists on Google maps, not on Apple Maps, Waze, Openstreet, or the various garmin/navitronics outdoor/boating navigation apps I have.

If this is a true story about a fake city, why use a fake name instead of calling attention to the real issue?

It’s too close to my home for comfort. You can probably guess metro area where I live based on comments but not within a couple miles.

My understanding is these are called Paper Towns. Map makers add them as a way to identify when their copyright is being violated by others coping the maps wholesale.

I don't know the laws where you live or background about your situation...

Maybe add a sign with an admission cost and warning that rescues cost a minimum $1000?

Tell them you have two options, you call the police or they pay the posted fees and you pull them out.

Being the nice guy for the first one or two idiots is fine, but I imagine your inconvenience has a cost?

May I suggest to create a "mine field, you will die" banner in your property with stones big enough to be picked by the satellite photo in the next update?

Or you may prefer a tasteful "sea crocodile sanctuary" traffic signal (Extra points if you draw the crocodile eating a tourist holding a beer and wearing Tyrolean pants).

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