3 years out of pizza due to a bug in Google Maps

Launched in April 2006, Google Maps has managed to impose itself within a few years. ultimate geolocation and mapping service. Today, it is difficult for individuals or professionals to do without it. Do you regularly order food from Deliveroo or Uber Eat? Have a package that requires the services of a delivery service other than La Poste? Do you call a private driver or a taxi from time to time? You may have noticed that with a few exceptions, all these occupations generally use Google’s service.

And because of this addiction, a Londoner had to face repeated ordeals, eventually several years of adversity. It all started in 2018: after an update, Google Maps suddenly gave Simon Borghs a zip code that didn’t belong to him.. From then on, it was impossible for him to deliver his food or take a taxi home without the driver dropping him off at the wrong address. Despite numerous reminders from the director concerned, the lawsuit dragged on for nearly 3 years before Google corrected the situation.

Google Maps gives it a zip code that matches that of a park

for 3 years, Simon Borghs lived in a park in Three Mils Green, 800 meters from his actual residence.. The zip code change happened suddenly on a beautiful day in 2018. Even though his code remained the same, Google had given him a new one. As a result, every time the delivery man wanted to deliver pizza, he landed at the said park. The same was true when she wanted to be dropped off home by taxi: following directions from Google Maps, the driver was on the wrong road in the direction of the park, a place where cars could not reach yet.

Google calls on an expert community to fix problems that may appear here and there in the geolocation service. “Local directories” have the possibility to correct errors. Simon Borghs tried to contact them several times.by opening multiple tickets to warn the Google Maps service of his case. It even tried to give Google Maps its exact address via the form to add a missing place. Finally, he applied to the Google Maps community forum 5 or 6 times to post a message, but received no response.

Finally, nothing happened. To circumvent the problem, Simon Borghs tried to specify his real address in the space reserved for delivery information. He also used a different address, but it was located near his home. A solution that pays off temporarily, if not ideal.

Google Maps issue finally resolved in less than 24 hours

However, it was by contacting the Observer that the director was finally able to win his lawsuit with Google. In less than 24 hours, Simon Borghs saw his address fixed on Google Maps And finally everything went back to normal. But Google offered no explanation as to why the service didn’t track Londoner’s multiple reminders. The company also did not comment on the number of cases similar to Simon Borghs, which is corrected each year.

Still somewhat annoyed by the length of this question and the difficulty he had in solving it, he said of the data from Google Maps: “Our daily life depends on the accuracy of this information – you could say it’s a public service. He explains that he uses a large number of sources, including user contributions, authoritative third-party sources, satellite imagery, and more, to model this way. We encourage users to report a problem to us using our Report a Problem tool.”

Source : Guard