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Inaccuracies in Google Maps Australia

I was driving with Michelle over to a housewarming party of sorts when, following the directions provided by Google Maps (from my desktop), I ran into a dead-end. While we resolved this moments later by doing our own re-routing, I later on decided to test the Nav4All GPS/navigational program that I had installed earlier on my BlackBerry and to my surprise it correctly showed the dead-end!

When I checked again with Google Maps I noticed that when trying to go into Street View mode it does recognize that Niara Rd is a dead-end and does not continue onto Aitchandar Rd as you can see from the blue outline below:

Dead-end on Niara Rd

Dead-end on Niara Rd

However, when I got Google to create a simple navigational instruction from one side to the other it again gave directions to drive onto Niara Rd and continuing onto Aitchandar Rd. Turning on Street View turns it into a rather comical directional aid (click for larger image), one that made me think there’s a Hibiki Ryouga working at Google Maps Australia:

Straight through the front yard!

Straight through the front yard!

This isn’t the first time something like this has happened and frankly I’m quite annoyed. I used to use MS Streets’n Trips while in the US and given that it was “offline” you’d think there would be more inaccuracies with that program. Nope! So you’d think an online program with Street View, satellite view and all would be a lot more accurate. Not sure what’s going on with Google Maps Australia but I do hope they fix this crap soon.


Sunday, 14 December 2008 - Posted by albert | Australia, Technology | , , , ,

1 Comment »

  1. do you want your money back albert?

    Comment by Carlo | Friday, 1 May 2009 | Reply


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