The other day I had a trip to a coffee shop located in a section of Ashland that I had never visited before. I felt it prudent to enlist the aid of map guidance software, and I decided to give Google Maps on my iPhone a trial. Google Maps on the iPhone, it turns out, is quite entertaining!
Here are the routes that Google Maps on my Mac proposed; I saw the same thing on my iPhone.
Google Maps recommended the blue route, but I preferred the red route because it’s simpler and has fewer stop signs. Much of the distance traversed on the red route is on the freeway, so it’s easier driving.
I expected that, once it became clear to Google Maps software that I was following the red route that it had itself suggested, it would conform to my decision. But no! Google Maps decided that I was in error in taking the red route, and kept demanding that I return to the blue route. At every possible opportunity, it demanded that I take a turn that would eventually get me back to the blue route, even though such a course would take longer than the red route.
In its exasperation with my insolent refusal to obey its orders, it decided that I deserved to die. Whilst on the freeway, it demanded three time times that I turn right — even though there was no freeway exit! Perhaps I should not be so cynical; perhaps it meant only that I should plow through fences and fields to get back to the blue route. Had I done so, I’m sure that I could get off without a traffic ticket by telling the police officer that “Google told me to do it.”