Google maps/navigation
 

I tried to do a search for this but I didn't come up with anything. It's not an actual problem just a weird glitch.

I use my phone as a GPS and it uses google navigation. When I go up the 5 to the LA area it will tell me to stay on the 5 North or South (it does it both ways) for X miles. Going North just past the 91 it will suddenly tell me to Exit Auto Center Drive. When I don't it ends up recalculating back to my original route and I'm on my merry way. It does the same thing if you're coming south just before the Auto Center Drive exit. It does it consistently every time I pass it.

Anyone else have this happen? Any ideas why it does it? Exiting on Auto Center is not a part of the original step by step navigation. It only pops up about a half a mile before the exit each way.

Most likely some weird quirk with Google's database where the stored data for the distances along the exit ramp calculates out to a preferred route based on whatever algorithm they're using than the doing the calculations with the stored data for that stretch of freeway.

Computerized mapping and route-calculation is an inexact science and one that requires a lot of clever programming shortcuts to execute efficiently. If you want to get bored go look up the computer science topics of "NP complete" and "traveling salesman". The short version is, any computer program that is able to give you a 100% guaranteed shortest route calculation will require an exponentially increasing amount of time to execute as the amount of possible routes increases. So with the huge amount of data that a nav system has to process, guaranteed accuracy is sacrificed for speed, leaving the possibility for weird inaccuracies. I imagine they also try to cover for some of that by doing a lot of re-calculation on smaller portions of the route as you go, which is why you wouldn't see it in the initial route but it might show up en-route.

Speaking of which, the googlemobile drove past us while we were loading the truck out the front !!! We're gonna be FAMOUS! (at the old address, of course....)

I run into weird glitches with my Garmin all the time. Some of them would have got me lost if I didn't know where I was going already.

Susan has a Garmin as well, though hers is older and does not have lifetime updated maps (so her database is 18-24 months old), whereas as mine is up-to-date. We took both of them with us one day (out of curiosity) and occasionally got different directions in a couple of places.

On mine, when I am traveling south on the 57 approaching the 91, it wants me to head towards "CA 91 / CA 52" (this accommodates not getting on the 91 W HOA transition) before telling me to stay on CA 57 South.

We had this happen too - but never saw us on it. Now I'm wondering if it was a remote control test car.

Quite ironic - immortalized as not living at that address.

Possible, but not for our one - it was a 3-wheeler dune-buggy looking thing with cameras mounted on it. The Guy driving was wearing a white crash helmet - I don't know why that stood out in my mind, but it did.

I had no idea they used that type of vehicle. What a fun job!