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Google Navigation & Traffic

L

lexluthor

Android Expert
Does the Google Navigation program take traffic conditions into consideration when calculating the route?

In other words, if I can get to my destination in 20 mins via Hwy A and 25 mins via Hwy B, but Hwy has an accident, will it route me to Hwy B instead?

If so, how accurate/real time are the traffic conditions?

I have Garmin on Windows Mobile now and find that it's saved me a few times by giving me a route that it wouldn't otherwise give me if the primary route wasn't backed up.
 
It will indicate traffic conditions head (colored dot) but I haven't seen it automatically reroute around traffic.

lexluthor said:
If so, how accurate/real time are the traffic conditions?
Click to expand...
Depends. I find it typically lags by many minutes behind our local traffic conditions web site.
 
That's too bad. Seems like that would be a great feature that wouldn't be too difficult to do.

I wasn't even necessarily talking about on the fly reroute. I don't think Garmin on WM does that, but it does take into account traffic at the time the route is generated.
 
I was wondering the same thing. I have a Garmin with a traffic feed and I was wondering if I should ditch it and use my Droid X.
 
After using it alot now, I think google nav does take traffic into consideration when calculating routes and time estimates.r
 
From a user's perspective, this is my biggest gripe with Google - lack of documentation. I don't use Google Maps too frequently, as I have a dedicated unit in my primary vehicle, but my observation has been that Google Navigation selects the route without regard for traffic, but uses traffic info to display an "adjusted" travel time. Several times I have seen it select a route that is congested, and when I ask for alternate routes, they ALL have significantly shorter travel times (even with traffic).

Also, I believe most dedicated units that support traffic will re-route you as traffic information is updated. At least my TomTom Go 740 and Garmin C550 do.
 
From my experience, and this is solely from me using it and assuming what it is doing, but it seems like it doesn't reroute based on traffic, but the little "light" to the left of the travel time is green, yellow, or red based on traffic conditions on the route. If it is yellow or red, I look at the alternate routes to see if any look better and will choose a different one if they are.

I've had mixed results with how up to date the traffic info is. From what I've read, traffic information is crowd sourced from other Android devices. There have been times it seems to be dead on, and other times it has lagged a bit like showing me a traffic jam once I'm in it. I wonder if it will get better and better as more Android devices are in use?
 
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