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After setting a destination and start navigation and my journey, if a new incident occurs and slows/blocks the route, is Google Navigation able to update the route and find a faster alternative automatically before I get near?

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3 Answers

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As far as I know and based on my testings with the same concern, I came to the conclusion that it doesn't update the route based on traffic or any other reasons.

I even took an alternative route that I knew it was faster in rush hour conditions and the navigator was still trying to reroute me back to its original route, considering that faster due to speed limits.

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up vote 5 down vote

Google doesn't do this automatically, but you can ask it to do it.

In traffic view, there is a button in the lower right hand corner (looks like 2 diverging arrows (one dashed) both leading to a destination pin).

In turn by turn view, press Menu then Routes and Alternatives, and the same alternate routes button will show up second from the right.

However, Google Navigation will often not show you a route that avoids the traffic. When that happens, start driving an alternate route and Google Navigation will eventually get the point, although you may have to listen to a lot of "turn around" alerts before it does.

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The main issue with this that you have to know the alternative routes. – slybloty Jul 13 '12 at 12:39
Well...yes and no. I have been on 2 road trips where the google traffic turned red in front of me and I just got off at the next exit; after a mile or two google traffic snapped onto a new route that went around the traffic snarl. Also, don't forget that google navigation has an embedded map which can help you figure out an alternate route, although this is most useful when travelling with a companion to act as navigator. Otherwise, you should pull over 1st. Most of all, google nav gives me the confidence to try stuff b/c I know that I can never get truly lost. – Gdalya Jul 15 '12 at 23:51
up vote 3 down vote

According to this post on the official Google blog, Navigation should have this feature but like slybloty said I have never noticed any evidence of this happening

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+1, thx for the link. It's available for North America and Europe where both Navigation and real-time traffic data are available. The example in the post is for NY, for which Google might have plenty of crowd sourced traffic data ready. Maybe there's a boundary for data quality and quantity at which this feature is enabled only. Mind: An areas cell coverage may also play a role how much good data google gets – ce4 Jul 13 '12 at 6:40

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