Buttu, who regularly travels from her home in Haifa, Israel, to the West Bank city of Ramallah for work and to visit friends, says Google Maps has led her astray several times in recent years. “I was told to drive straight into a wall that has been standing since 2003,” she says.
Others have encountered the same wall near the Qalandiya checkpoint separating Jerusalem from the West Bank, and driving across it has become almost a rite of passage. “I was once trying to get to an office in an East Jerusalem neighborhood, and Google Maps completely failed me,” says Leila, who works at an American company not far from Ramallah. , who works for an American company based out of Ramallah and asked only her first name to be used for privacy reasons. , “It wanted me to go down the road that was completely cut off by the wall.”
Google's Bourdeau told WIRED that the company is investigating the route and will update if it can confirm the situation based on reliable data.
Even before the war, Google Maps users in the West Bank said they were accustomed to receiving potentially unsafe directions. One persistent issue they point to is the fact that Google does not distinguish between unrestricted roads and roads that are only allowed to be used by Israelis, such as roads leading to and from Israeli settlements where Palestinians should not go. En route from Haifa to Ramallah, Google Maps once directed Buttu to a closed gate, where she says Israeli soldiers approached her car with their guns pointed at her. “I had to explain that I had made a mistake,” she says. Google “adapts to go on populated roads, which can be very dangerous for me as a Palestinian,” she says.
Bordeaux says Google does not differentiate between Palestinian and Israeli routes, as this would require knowing personal information about users, such as their citizenship.
When Google Maps takes her to settlements, Buttu says she speaks English in hopes of passing by like a lost foreigner. Other Palestinian users tell WIRED that when they unexpectedly reach risky areas, they try to turn around or retreat as quickly as possible.
In other instances, Google Maps refuses to provide directions altogether, such as when navigating between West Bank cities including Hebron and Ramallah. Instead, the app tells them it “could not calculate driving directions” (WIRED was able to replicate the same result). One of the current Google employees says this is because Google has not invested in enabling directions between the three administrative regions of the West Bank, two of which are more officially controlled by Israeli authorities. Google spokesperson Bordeaux says the company is working to resolve the issue.
new challenges
Despite its shortcomings, users tell WIRED that they previously found Google Maps helpful in this area, especially when traveling to unfamiliar locations. However, since the war started, he feels the app has become unmanageable. Shortly after the fighting began, Google shut down the ability to view an overview of live traffic in the area to protect “Protecting local communities.” Users now have to input a specific location to see traffic conditions on their route, potentially adding extra steps for some of them.
Two current Google employees also say that, due to changing conditions on the ground during the war and the increase in spam that followed the conflict, Google did not take action on several suggested edits submitted by employees and West Bank drivers. , which alert the tech giant to problems such as missing roads or locations. Due to this the road data on the app is out of date from last year. Bordeaux says Google applies updates when suggestions can be verified through reliable sources.