If Google Maps/IP L...
 

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If Google Maps/IP Location is so clever...

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...why whenever I open Google Maps does it think I'm 100 miles away from where I actually am! 🙂

I'm not running any VPN or fancy firewall.

And Gmail never 'remembers' my Mac despite me clicking remember this device every ruddy day.


 
Posted : 09/06/2022 3:43 pm
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…why whenever I open Google Maps does it think I’m 100 miles away from where I actually am!

Your ISP has changed your IP address to one which had recently been assigned to someone 100 miles away.

After a few weeks Google will figure out it has moved.


 
Posted : 09/06/2022 4:04 pm
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I went to Spain on holiday (with Basque MTB - They're ace) and for weeks afterwards my laptop was convinced I was in Spain. It would offer me Spanish version of websites if one was available, and wanted to auto translate everything else. Never mind that it'd been in West Yorkshire before  and was now back in West Yorkshire - Nope...Spanish it is from now on.


 
Posted : 09/06/2022 4:16 pm
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My mobile telephone did the same as Nick's laptop, went to Australia, no problems at all. For months afterwards back in the UK I was getting constant messages telling me that it couldn't connect to Telstra and I had to manually choose EE every time I wanted to do anything


 
Posted : 09/06/2022 5:29 pm
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If it’s an Apple device it’s possibly due to Private Relay - or could be down to an exit router managed by your ISP.


 
Posted : 09/06/2022 5:32 pm
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Had this recently with Google maps.
Directions telling me my journey is 2.5 hours, when I'm 20 minutes away.


 
Posted : 09/06/2022 5:35 pm
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not really relevant to the OP but maybe someone can confirm.

In google maps of yore if you got directions from say michigan to Edinburgh the directions took you to the coast then literally told you to swim before contiuning on the other side.

HAve i completely made that memory up?


 
Posted : 09/06/2022 6:04 pm
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HAve i completely made that memory up?

It was certainly true in some cases.

For the OP if its just using IP then it can jump around depending on the IP provider. My work VPN authenticator pops up a message saying where it thinks the auth request came from and it varies quite significantly from day to day.
For an IP lookup going really badly wrong.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/09/maxmind-mapping-lawsuit-kansas-farm-ip-address


 
Posted : 09/06/2022 6:27 pm
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Google maps once told me to walk over a motorway junction to reach my destination. Never mind wanting to be in another country, really it wants you dead. Just so you know.


 
Posted : 10/06/2022 7:20 am
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Google maps once told me to walk over a motorway junction to reach my destination. Never mind wanting to be in another country, really it wants you dead. Just so you know.

It's never told me anything of the sort. Maybe it's not all of us Google wants dead, it's just you?


 
Posted : 10/06/2022 9:07 am
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IP geolocation is notorious rubbish. You can tell Google your home location to avoid this.


 
Posted : 10/06/2022 9:26 am
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Ah, but then They know where you live.


 
Posted : 10/06/2022 10:15 am
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My wife's phone while using google maps to navigate in the car suddenly decided we were in Switzerland. This was with GPS and location services turned on. Made for an interesting 'recalculating route' moment!

Never did work out what happened. But incidents like this do make me very sceptical of GPS speed limiting or self driving cars etc.


 
Posted : 10/06/2022 1:24 pm
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But incidents like this do make me very sceptical of GPS speed limiting or self driving cars etc.

Self driving cars won't use Google maps software in much the same way that planes don't. The level of engineering required will be much greater, and there'll be a comprehensive approval process. Both from a regulatory point of view and a.liabiloty one, but also consumer perception.


 
Posted : 10/06/2022 1:43 pm
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Self driving cars won’t use Google maps software in much the same way that planes don’t. The level of engineering required will be much greater, and there’ll be a comprehensive approval process. Both from a regulatory point of view and a.liabiloty one, but also consumer perception.

I once heard it said that Tesla isn't a car company, it's a geolocation data company 🙂


 
Posted : 10/06/2022 2:14 pm
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There used to be a fantastic bit of subversive code in google maps, only worked on desktop though.

Ask for walking irections from The Shire to Mordor would give a route from Modiford, Hereford, to some place in the Netherlands. But the advice given was “One does not simply walk in to Mordor”. Clicking that advice would take you to a YouTube video of Sean Bean in LoTR.


 
Posted : 10/06/2022 2:23 pm
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I once heard it said that Tesla isn’t a car company, it’s a geolocation data company

I was told by a reliable source as recently as two days ago, Tesla isn't officially a car manufacturer but a technology manufacturer whose tech happens to have wheels. This has - allegedly - allowed them to dodge various legislation that would have applied otherwise.


 
Posted : 10/06/2022 7:34 pm

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