Map confusions – because journeys are important

If someone has been following the Map Wars, apologies, the map confusions off late, they would realize that these are interesting times we are living in. For at least two decades we have been using Google Maps, invariably it lets the traveler reach their desired destination with an error estimate of a very, very lesser magnitude. As a customer, right now, you and I don’t have a choice or maybe we just follow Google maps by default. However, one of the brands has decided to not use Google Maps first, and secondly develop their own version of Maps to get more control and stakes and for any other reason. This 2^nd brand’s main business is ride hailing services. Apart from providing a physical car to transport consumers from Point A to Point B, they are also supposed to ensure Point B is the right Point B and not Point B.1 or C.

 It’s a free world and anybody can use what they want, however my concern is purely for the consumer. This consumer doesn’t care when brands fight, mostly the consumer is the winner in these scenarios. But imagine you are in the 2^nd brand’s cab which uses a home-grown map, and you are at the back seat, and are not comfortable with it, and start using Google Maps for navigation, there can be a state of total confusion. You, having believed in Google maps for long, will suggest alternate faster routes, saving 1 minute here and 4 minutes there, and the 2^nd brand’s driver will dismiss it as his version of map says something else. You want to click on the Emergency button to alarm the organizers of this ride, but you click on Google Maps instead and they dismiss it as a bad Request.

There can be fights, verbal to start with, and then in the odd possibility, you will get dropped off before the destination arrives because now you are having trust issues both with the driver and the maps.

As a consumer, would you care if the routes are changed, or it doesn’t matter as long as you reach your destination. After all, how many different roads there are to reach the same office, who cares how you reach there!

In a hypothetical situation, the problem might arise when Brand A gets routes rights and then no other brand can use those routes, oops, is it even a possibility? That could be scary or maybe some routes are not visible at all to Brand B in the distant future. Not so good, you might say, but then you always knew your favorite route to reach the office, yeah! the breaks that you took to relish ice cream, buy a book or just the scenic route you loved to follow before office strikes. You, the consumer, will ask Brand B to cancel the navigation and enjoy the journey, after all, you know a bit or two about navigation!