
Google Maps will tell if your taxi driver is off course to rack up a higher fare - protomyth
https://bgr.com/2019/06/10/google-maps-features-off-route-alerts-will-make-taxi-rides-safer/
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maerF0x0
Off track according to who's opinion? Likely google maps...

Could it be possible that a local expert knows better than google? Or a
competing app?

It's really hard to say if the other route would have been better.

This feature will especially break around special events and construction.

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protomyth
I get the feeling we will see some news stories about folks using this app and
getting into an out of control argument with some old timers that drive the
roads each day.

Is there ever a discussion inside the big technology companies of what happens
when these "anti-fraud" apps are just plain wrong?

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maerF0x0
I'm even just thinking something as simple as Waze/Uber/Lyft disagree with the
route googlemaps chooses

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a47thrandomfox
My wife and I can have Waze open at the same time, in the same car, with the
same place as the destination and the route will be different.

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shaftway
Doesn't Waze deliberately send people down different routes to A / B test
them?

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crooked-v
And even without A/B testing, there's obvious user experience reasons to
evenly split traffic among alternate routes with about the same travel time.

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lucideer
I know my area very well, and can still be significantly off when picking the
right route due to unpredictable traffic patterns. Google maps can't even tell
me the best route off-peak.

It's fine for travelling abroad when all you want is a route that gets you to
where you want to go in reasonable time, but I would never expect Google's
directions to be optimal (at least in an urban setting, where taxis are used
most).

As someone else has commented, this is definitely a drive to centralise
reliance on Google Maps by making it the de facto standard for defining the
best route (you can't go back in time to try a different route, so it won't be
viable to argue that Google didn't provide the optimum route).

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grawprog
I know my area fairly well enough to be able to roughly figure out what the
fair should be and can tell if a taxi driver is fucking around trying to take
a longer route. I tend to plan my fairs with a decent tip in mind. If there's
any unnecessary deviations from the ideal route, I just subtract the time from
whatever tip I was going to leave. It's only happened once or twice and every
time it's worked out i've given around the same amount of money I was going to
anyway, they just receive no tip out of it. I imagine this strategy would fail
in a different city.

Honestly though, 99% of taxis i've ever taken where there's more than one
route, the driver usually asks which route i'd like to take. I've never used
lyft or uber or any of those so I can't really comment on them.

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dokem
This strategy could be slightly improved by never tipping.

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grawprog
Yeah, but I call the same taxi place a lot and because I tip, if I get a
driver that recognizes me they show up really quickly, i've had them cancel a
fare they were on their way to to grab me instead. The way I see it, i've
relied on taxi drivers to get me home when i've been in states where i would
have been fucked otherwise. I look at them the same as people that handle your
food. If i'm getting into someone's car drunk, it's always nice to know the
person driving thinks positively of you. I'm also kind of wary of them and try
to be polite, i've got a friend who was taken to the railroad tracks and
beaten by a group of taxi drivers for being rude.

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siphon22
So, that taxi driver screwed over another person because of your bribe/tip?
They might have needed one just as much as you or more don't you think? I
think that's exactly what's wrong with tipping culture.

That's why I like how with services like Uber, it's very unlikely to get the
same person who drove you previously. No pressure to have to bribe anyone to
do their job.

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true_religion
He lives in a place where taxi drivers beat you bloody for being rude. Where
ever that is has got a lot more problems to solve before tackling tipping
culture.

Heck, if I lived there and were forced to take a cab, I would tip heavily
upfront just to protect myself.

~~~
siphon22
For some reason I had brushed over the fact that he mentioned a bunch of taxi
drivers just meeting up to kick someone's ass for being rude or whatever that
means. That's pretty surreal to imagine.

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darkhorn
[http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/up-to-10-years-in-jail-
soug...](http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/up-to-10-years-in-jail-sought-for-
istanbul-taxi-driver-for-overcharging-saudi-tourist-127678)

A taxi driver in Istanbul took the passenger from Asian side to European side,
and then back to Asian side.

Google Maps will deacrease these crimes.

~~~
shoes_for_thee
Going from one side of a river (okay, a strait..) to another sounds more
dramatic when it separates continents.

~~~
crooked-v
It's still pretty dramatic. Compare to, say, a taxi driver going between
points in San Francisco going over the Oakland Bay bridge into Oakland,
driving around some, and then going back over the bridge back into SF.

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spookware
Look forward to this app being cancelled in ← 2 years. Perhaps leave taxi
drivers alone?

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convolvatron
Taxi drivers in the US are generally pretty sensitive to people's perception
that they are racking up the fare. If you know a little about the geography
they are generally pretty happy to discuss the route and use your preference
if you say you'd like to go that way.

if you can learn a little about the streets up front, and use a map
application during the ride... just talk to your cabby

maybe someone should pitch the 'human interaction' app, which just completely
abstracts all social and retail interaction instead of just chipping away at
it bit by bit

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segmondy
In my area, I can consistently beat the GPS by taking all the little shortcuts
that I know. What are you going to do when it alerts? Ask the driver to stop
and drop you off? Refuse to pay?

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nerpderp82
And not everyone can "take the optimum" route. It would no longer be optimum.
I don't want maximum efficiency to be a proxy for the fastest for me, I'd
rather smooth and predicable traffic for everyone.

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OedipusRex
This weekend I was driving a route I've driven many times before but I use
maps to save some time in case of a delay on the road (it's a ~4 hour drive).
Google Maps told me to get off the interstate and take a different route
through state highways. The issue is is that it told _everyone_ to do this, so
this unsuspecting small town exit got a ton of traffic and congestion,
defeating the purpose of saving me time.

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nmstoker
In reply to the "what about the expert" comments, bear in mind that the alert
is when the route deviates by over 500m.

So in urban areas this isn't going to trigger for most cases where it's just a
smarter neighbouring road, it'll be where there's a significant deviation.

And this doesn't have to result in arguments: just politely asking the driver
about the route seems a fair start

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Akinato
Seems like an aggressive move to get all the taxis to use Google Maps, lest
they hear the complaints of their customers.

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xfitm3
I certainly know better than Google maps in my area - but I think most Uber
and Lyft drivers just follow what their display tells them. If I were a driver
I'd be afraid of giving someone the opportunity to complain.

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ecares
As a parisian, I can only recommend using that when visiting my city!

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gambiting
Lol - as if Google maps was any good at navigating. There is a road next to me
that's been closed for nearly 2 years and Google maps keep navigating through
it. Keep reporting it over and over again and nothing. Not to mention not
having a single clue which roads are one-way or where you can't make a
right/left turn. And then paths which are not open to vehicle traffic but hey
it's on the map so it must be open to cars, yeah? And then of course any
complaint about Google maps is met with "but it's free, what are you
expecting!".

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OedipusRex
I live in a capitol city of a US State and Google Maps is pretty good, I've
reported a large amount of changes to streets and stuff in a number of
different States, rural and not, and they've almost all gotten published
within an hour of me reporting the error.

