The biggest complaint I've had lately is that it will randomly alter my route without letting me know when or why. More than one it has told me to turn when the route it showed me before I hit "start" did not have a turn at that point.

In the last six months, yes. It suggests short cuts that can create long delays. Shorter by miles, but often worse in the end.

I think it seems that way because it's trying to promote alternative routes. whether it's routing around slowdowns, taking a more fuel efficient route, or whatever.

however this could also be due to the user having different expectations for different trips and not changing the settings.

I've been getting weird walking instructions. Like 6 min walk is +30 to avoid some invisible barrier.

They switched from giving you the fastest route by default to giving you the one that uses the least gas.
They also now offer alternative routes that take you past businesses which paid money to Google.

It's been wonky lately. Maybe it's just drunk?

Google is doing a lot of A and B testing right now. Some days I habe to use Bing or duckduckgo, no matter what, or else I get shit results.

Do you see a leaf next to the directions, that means it's taking the most fuel efficient route not the fastest, it's the default I believe. I don't think it's very effective.

Gmaps is still definitely getting worse over time regardless.

I use google maps every day. Wouldn't say it's been getting worse.

Here's some "high quality" (heh heh) anecdata for you: I navigated from my house in Somerville to a restaurant in the Seaport district of Boston last night, in the POURING rain using public transit and walking.

Google maps literally was leading me around in circles downtown once I got off the train, so I switched to Apple Maps and it was straight shooting from there on in.

I think GMaps is more susceptible to the tall buildings fouling the GPS. Not sure why?

Its gotten very slow and laggy and crashes often.

In my experience, ever since the layoffs, most google apps have had a negative experience.

Gmail layout shifts when selecting now. Maps crashes or displays the PIP ui by mistake. Too Many extra clicks added to maps as well. It's more confusing to navigate.

YouTube... The ad nonsense. One could go on

Google consistently routes people to make a right turn across an unsignalised dual carriageway near me. (Australia, we drive on the left).

This right turn is so prone to crashes that every single weekday morning and afternoon there will be multiple tow trucks just waiting for a crash.

To avoid this intersection and turn right on to the dual carriageway at a location with traffic lights is only a matter of driving less than 1km in either direction on a parallel side street. Yet Google tells people to go past the traffic lights to make this turn. Idiocy.