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Where's the Traveling Salesman for Google Maps?

Komi writes "Has anyone tackled the Traveling Salesman Problem with Google Maps or any other online mapping tool? I've searched, but can't find anything. To me this seems like such an obviously cool function. I'm not up to date on algorithms, so perhaps this isn't really tractable for large values of n. But for small numbers (maybe up to 5), this could at least be brute-forced. I would love to use this when I have errands to run, and I want an overall optimal route. So if this hasn't been done, someone please do it!"

3 of 125 comments (clear)

  1. He is out, travelling? by G3ckoG33k · · Score: 3, Funny

    He is out, travelling? Or just too small to be seen in that resolution?

    I have no idea.

  2. Do it the old way by KiloByte · · Score: 3, Funny

    Well, I haven't heard about any Nobel prizes or Fields medals awarded to Google's employees recently.

    So, because of network latency, the best you can do is:
    1. run Google queries for n^2 routes for all node pairs
    2. solve the Travelling Salesman problem yourself

    Because there is no way to go A->B->C faster than A->B + B->C if you want to visit B on the way, asking Google/Yahoo/etc for A->B->C routes is pointless.

    Of course, step 2. is left as an exercise to the reader.

    --
    The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
  3. Re:Interesting question.. But sorry no answer from by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Holy fuck you Americans are lazy. "Um yeah we can't go hiking around a friggin' national park until we find the Provably Laziest Path." What's next, Yosemite sucks because there's no wifi? No gondola lift to Half Dome? No SUV access on El Cap? Want me to hold your 3oz digicam while you press the button to auto-focus to infinity?