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Catching Satnav Errors On Google Street View

Posted by timothy on from the now-wait-3-months-for-the-ferry dept.

Barence writes "Most of the satnav companies allow users to report errors with their maps, but do they ever get fixed? PC Pro's Paul Ockenden uses Google StreetView to highlight glaring and dangerous flaws in Tele Atlas maps — which are used by TomTom and Google Maps itself — but the company has failed to respond to numerous reports of map errors posted over the course of several years. 'About half a mile from where I live, a Tele Atlas-based satnav will instruct you to turn off at a junction where there's only an on-ramp,' Ockenden reports. 'I've witnessed some confused and dangerous driving at this junction as people try to find the non-existent exit, so I wouldn't be surprised if major mapping errors like this are a danger to road safety.'"

4 of 312 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Data Posioning.... by MichaelSmith · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There's got to be a better way to confirm the existence or non-existence of such must-avoid intersections.

    Live traffic data I suppose. Traffic signals will calculate degree of saturation from dwell times on induction loop vehicle detectors. In most systems that data is passed up the chain to the software which does strategic traffic management. I have been out of the area for a while but I assume the live data is extracted at this point and aggregated into these live traffic data sets.

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    http://michaelsmith.id.au
  2. No real danger to road safety that I can see... by mark-t · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Because cars are not driven by computer, any driver that is remotely conscious of his surroundings would be able to spot the difficulty with trying to utilize paths that are clearly not intended for anyone to utilize.

    And any driver who is liable to cause an accident because of this sort of thing is likely already a public menace for driving without due care and attention in the first place, so I do not think that this creates any significantly additional opportunity for traffic accidents beyond what already exists.

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    File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
    1. Re:No real danger to road safety that I can see... by SharpFang · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You're missing the point.
      A driver who picks road according to road signs and general look of the road is fine when there's no turn.

      A driver who is ordered to turn into nonexistent street gets confused and distracted. Yes, sure they will realize this is no way, there is no point going there, the GPS is wrong. But they take a second or two to realize this, evaluate the wrong road, pick a new choice of actions instead of the planned ones. This is a distraction of the class of a kid throwing a cup of cold drink on your lap. Not serious by itself, if the situation on the road demands your immediate attention, it may be lethal.

      Also, an experienced driver will just shrug it off, but nobody is born experienced. You need it happen to you 3-4 times before you learn how to cope with it. They don't teach you that in driving lessons. And before you get the experience you are fully vulnerable.

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      45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
  3. Re:Data Posioning.... by Hays · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I find your claim a somewhat incredible. How did they know when these companies were coming? And then how did they cause traffic disruptions? Did the residents take turns parking on the road for hours on end? Did they fake car accidents? That seems like an awful lot of trouble to go through, with considerable risk of police intervention, just to reduce tourist traffic on a nearby highway. What is your source for this information?