Google maps has failed me.

[SLICE]

so once upon a time i made a post about do i really need a stand alone GPS, well apparently i do (curses google ) so my last 3 outings google maps has failed me in epic fashion.

i first time it happened was on my 130 mile planned route that i take every tuesday, i hit start went to the first turn and it wanted me to make a u-turn and head home.

so i got out of the app went back in and reopened the trip and same thing went about 7 miles to the first turn and then it wanted me to head home. seeing i know the route i just continued on.

the second time it happened i checked avoid highways/interstates as soon as i get to the interstate it wants me to get on. so i disregard that and figure it will just recaulate and let me continue on but noooo it just keeps telling me to make a u-turn and it did this until i was within 5 miles of my destination.

so when i got home i deleted the app from my phone and reinstalled it and checked for updates, i did the same on both my home computes.

so this morning i sent my pre planned route to my iphone 14 and all is going splendidly but as soon as we are within a mile of the interstate it recalculates and wants me to take the direct route to my destination.

it did not offer alternate routes just one solid blue line the fastest most direct route all my map settings were as i set them to avoid highways/interstates ect ect ect.

now i'm kicking myself that i returned the Garmin XT my wife got me for christmas....

it's become apparent that when google wants you to follow their route there's no working around it.

i emailed google with a barrage of questions, i planted a redwood tree as a timer for a reply

stephan

[2dogs]

Google is trying to tell you that you should stay home until you are completely healed from your attempt to fly down the steps.

[gkamer]

I use WAZE app on my cell phone. It was worked well for me. Only problem with it is its limited destination range which I think is only like 1000 miles. Anything further than 1000 miles and it can't compute it.

[Jetfixer]

I had the exact same issue using Garmin's routing software. Any deviation from the planned route and it wanted me to make a u-turn to get back on course.

[2dogs]

I had the exact same issue using Garmin's routing software. Any deviation from the planned route and it wanted me to make a u-turn to get back on course.

That's exactly what Google Maps does to me. Or it recalculates if I just continue on.

[Peteoz]

Stephan, since you have returned your XT, but are happy using your phone, it looks like it might be time to invest in a phone app like Sygic at around $40 per year. It will give you nearly all the features of the XT, but operates off satellite, not phone towers, so it is rock solid. If it doesn’t work for you, terminate the annual fee after a year.

Pete

[Flamewinger]

There are stand alone GPS apps for your smartphone. TomTom, Sygic and Genius Maps are a few I’ve used. Genius allows you to set a destination then use your finger to move the highlighted route to another road multiple times. Sygic does almost the same thing but you add waypoints and can rearrange them.

Waze and Google use cell service and are not reliable without it.

It’s best to plan daily rides rather than one long trip as it’s just too much for any GPS and you’ll always be changing it.

[MONK]

Waze and Google use cell service and are not reliable without it.

I can't speak for Waze but you can d/l your Google route to use offline. I've done it many times since I've tended (at least in the last 6 years) to ride in the mountains where cell service is spotty. Doing it that way won't allow an automatic reroute if you get stuck on a detour but it's better than nothing.

[MNF3]

I use REVER now instead of Google. Just plain works!

[cruisinTX]

google maps has failed me in epic fashion.

i first time it happened was on my 130 mile planned route that i take every tuesday, i hit start went to the first turn and it wanted me to make a u-turn and head home.

stephan

I'm curious why you would even need GPS or Google if you take the same route every Tuesday. Why bother to even turn either one on?

[SLICE]

I'm curious why you would even need GPS or Google if you take the same route every Tuesday. Why bother to even turn either one on?

yesterday's route was 350'ish miles of roads never traveled and google went wonky a a dozen times.


now as for using the planned route on my weekly ride, i may spot a road and see where it goes now with the map open i can drop a pin so when i get home and plan another route using that road.

you see these roads i ride are empty many don't even have lines painted on them and it's all farm and cattle country, you miss one of these roads that look like someone's driveway and you never know what you could be missing.

[JayBros]

I had the exact same issue using Garmin's routing software. Any deviation from the planned route and it wanted me to make a u-turn to get back on course.

In my experience with my Zumo 590, if I want to avoid the U-turn prompts I must go into the Navigation settings and change the Off Route Calculation mode to Off or Prompted. The Routing calculation options in the Activity Profile on both the GPS and BaseCamp, if you're using it, should be set identically.

[EdMat]

you see these roads i ride are empty many don't even have lines painted on them and it's all farm and cattle country, you miss one of these roads that look like someone's driveway and you never know what you could be missing.

[Flamewinger]

I can't speak for Waze but you can d/l your Google route to use offline. I've done it many times since I've tended (at least in the last 6 years) to ride in the mountains where cell service is spotty. Doing it that way won't allow an automatic reroute if you get stuck on a detour but it's better than nothing.

It’s still a pain to have to download maps every time you go somewhere. One glitch, like your phone dies or you accidentally shut the Google Maps off and you’re SOL.

[Jesster72]

This may or may not help, but when I plan my rides using Google Maps, I choose waypoints that take me on the routes that I want. It is somewhat of a pain, but it is a viable work around. The only issue is Google limits you to 10 waypoints. For our upcoming PA trip, I've had to find some interesting points to enter to keep me off of the interstates. I have a dedicated GPS, but I default to the phone because I can stream my music with voiceover GPS through the bike speakers.

For example, I couldn't route from Punxsutawney to Kinzua Dam directly (I could, but not hit my preferred route) without adding Ridgway as a stop.

I hope this helps a little bit until you get answers to your email.

[Piratezz]

try Kurviger, it's specially for motorbikes/spyders, and has way too many features, but it will never ever sent you via Higways, it uses backroads, small roads. I use it for severall years now, and if I plan a roadtrip, and let kurviger do the math, the app brings me to streets I've never been on...

Just google Kurviger, it has a huge forum, where the same ambient feeling of helping eachother, exists like this forum, try the free version first... just my two cents
Works both online (cellcoverage), and offline, using gps data

[fatboy]

unfortunately looks to be android only

[DGoebel]

Slice, Not sure what's happening, but I do as Jesster72 and Monk have stated and have done several 1000 - 2000 mile Iron Butt rides with little to no interstate and Google Maps (configured, way-pointed, and offline maps saved to phone) has rarely mis-behaved, on my '13 RTL I used the Garmin only as a backup and route tracker in the end. IronButt ride verification methods now use Google Maps as a reference even. It could be the settings in Google Maps app don't match the settings you used in route creation, if you created the route on a computer before transferring it to the phone. I have no objections to adding a $700 component to backup what my phone can do, but I didn't find it any easier creating a multi-waypointed group ride, that sometimes still had Garmin errors(like the time it tried to take a group ride down a no motor vehicle multiuse path....<G>.

[SLICE]

today i had a Doc appointment so for spits and grins i made a route that was completely insane and sure enough GOOGLE performed flawlessly.

go figure.

now that i think about it what i did yesterday was set the destination and i dragged and dropped the route to my liking and even though in transfered to my phone it defaulted to most direct/fastest route.

so i will hold off of hitting the buy button for a zummo for the time being and use way-points when making a route instead of just dragging the blue line to my liking

[DGoebel]

Slice, you've described exactly how I start many of my routes, by dragging and dropping the generated path to my liking, but then I go select or create waypoints at the significant corners or spots I want to hit along the ride, after tweaking it to my needs. I then send it to my phone pinning it. Then when viewing it on my phone I download the area somewhat larger than the boundaries of that ride so that I have mapping even if no signal.

[Piratezz]

unfortunately looks to be android only

They are in the makings of an apple version as well, it's in development

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

you miss one of these roads that look like someone's driveway and you never know what you could be missing.

Supper?

[SLICE]

Supper?

or the woman riding the tractor topless

[askitee]

so once upon a time i made a post about do i really need a stand alone GPS, well apparently i do (curses google ) so my last 3 outings google maps has failed me in epic fashion.

i first time it happened was on my 130 mile planned route that i take every tuesday, i hit start went to the first turn and it wanted me to make a u-turn and head home.

so i got out of the app went back in and reopened the trip and same thing went about 7 miles to the first turn and then it wanted me to head home. seeing i know the route i just continued on.

the second time it happened i checked avoid highways/interstates as soon as i get to the interstate it wants me to get on. so i disregard that and figure it will just recaulate and let me continue on but noooo it just keeps telling me to make a u-turn and it did this until i was within 5 miles of my destination.

so when i got home i deleted the app from my phone and reinstalled it and checked for updates, i did the same on both my home computes.

so this morning i sent my pre planned route to my iphone 14 and all is going splendidly but as soon as we are within a mile of the interstate it recalculates and wants me to take the direct route to my destination.

it did not offer alternate routes just one solid blue line the fastest most direct route all my map settings were as i set them to avoid highways/interstates ect ect ect.

now i'm kicking myself that i returned the Garmin XT my wife got me for christmas....

it's become apparent that when google wants you to follow their route there's no working around it.

i emailed google with a barrage of questions, i planted a redwood tree as a timer for a reply

stephan

We had the same thing happen back in 2018. We were in the Central West of the state on a loan RTL which didnt have a GPS and making our way out of the city we'd stayed at. Google guided us out of town to the bypass of the town and kept wanting us to go back. We were using my wifes iPhone - we tried resetting the destination, rebooting the phone and starting a new route but nothing would change its mind. We kept seeing signs with the town we needed to go to next. In the end we just went back into town and used the oldest method - eyeballs reading signs. It had as very amused - mind you - we saw parts of the city we'd have not seen without google maps obsession with the city. The other time was in our State Capital G.M.'s had me drive a 4km "block" taking me to a convention centre - each time I got within a few hundred meters of the destination it would repeat the loop. I pulled over and asked for directions but no one had heard of the venue - missed the convention, lost a days pay, drove 700km for a couple of laps of Sydney.... cant say I was happy ab out it.

[Flamewinger]

Google Maps and Waze require cell service for map data. If you set a route when in cell service and don’t have phone problems or shut the app down you should be ok. Waze just needs cell service or no maps. Both only make routes from A to B unless you carry a laptop.

Sygic, Genius Maps and TomTom use pre downloaded maps and work offline. Genius and Sygic allow making custom routes just as easy as Google desktop. Phone GPS is way cheaper than a stand alone Garmin.