Is Apple's real-time traffic used for routing too slow?

[ghanwani]

I've noticed this multiple times now where Apple maps will literally route me into a serious traffic jam delaying my arrival by 15-20 min (on a 20 min trip, making it 35-40 min total) even though there are alternate routes available. It shows everything green right until I actually hit the jam, and it still continues to show green, and then after a few minutes it turns red and starts showing red. By the time I hit the jam (on the highway) it's too late to use the alternate route by taking an earlier exit and using surface streets (which it previously showed as 2-4 min slower).

This makes me think that their updates are slow and route computations are being done by outdated info.

Today I was trying to get to a store and my arrival time was 15 mins before closing. I barely got there at closing time.

Anyone else notice this? Is Android any better in this regard?

 

[BigBlur]

Traffic jams can build up pretty quickly. Perhaps it started just moments before you got there. Do you have other map apps installed to compare (i.e. Google Maps or Waze)? Do they show red while Apple Maps still shows green?

 

[ghanwani]

Traffic jams can build up pretty quickly. Perhaps it started just moments before you got there. Do you have other map apps installed to compare (i.e. Google Maps or Waze)? Do they show red while Apple Maps still shows green?

Don't have any other apps. The car has its own navigation with real-time traffic but I didn't check that before since I was in CarPlay mode. This was a pretty bad jam due to construction (4 lanes going down to 2 with multiple incoming merges from off the highway) so I doubt it happened suddenly (i.e. not something like an accident).

 

[FreakinEurekan]

FWIW it does okay for me... I tend to use Maps directions all the time, for that very reason. Just the other day it told me to turn Right out of my cul-de-sac, instead of left, for a trip where I always turn left. So... I turned right. As I passed a major intersection a few minutes later (where I'd have been approaching from a different direction) I could see it was snarled.

I know people who swear by Google or Waze (both owned by Google, and both of which WILL work with CarPlay) but personally, Maps does just fine.

 

[537635]

A few weeks ago it was just the opposite for me. Wife's Google Maps was showing normal traffic, while Apple Maps correctly showed a congestion and suggested a detour.

 

[ignatius345]

The only way to really test this is get a passenger to pull out their own phone and run Google Maps so you can compare.

I generally see pretty accurate traffic and time estimates from Apple Maps. Every once in a while the estimate will slip on a longer drive because something has come up that it doesn't anticipate. I get decent rerouting on Apple Maps, and on one long highway drive got routed WAY around the traffic but still ended up where we wanted to go at roughly the same time.