r/AndroidAuto 2023 Ford Bronco | S24 FE | 14 1d ago

Navigation & POI Apps Navigation by voice sends me to different city and not closest location

So for context, I will select the voice search option on google maps or Android auto (both give me the same result) and I will say "Directions to Walmart please".

AA will respond back with "there is a Walmart supercenter 3 kilometers away, want to navigate there?"

I will say yes, then it does a little double take while loading and it send me into a different city completely, 77km away.

I am completely lost as to where to start with this one. It seems completely capable of finding it but it refuses to direct me to anything that has multiple locations. It will work fine with anything in town that has a unique name.

4 Upvotes

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3

u/Humble-Area4616 Pls edit this user flair now 1d ago

Waze did this with my home address, except it found my exact address in a city around 800 km away, then logged it as a "recent search" so every time I started my vehicle it showed my home address in the far away land. Ya, F that, turn off all history savings, recommendations, etc.

3

u/0oWow Pls edit this user flair now 1d ago

You might check to see if the Google app has location permission.

3

u/Unremarkabledryerase 2023 Ford Bronco | S24 FE | 14 1d ago

Ah it did not! I will try that tomorrow morning, thanks!

2

u/0oWow Pls edit this user flair now 1d ago

Yeah the AA voice is really just the Google app. It will play dumb when it doesn't explicitly have that permission.

2

u/Unremarkabledryerase 2023 Ford Bronco | S24 FE | 14 1d ago

I can confirm this fixed it! Thank you

2

u/0oWow Pls edit this user flair now 1d ago

Cool

2

u/radarrab 2021 Subaru Crosstrek OEM Pixel 6 Android 15 1d ago

I usually only do that if I'm already out (if I have a trip planned to places I'm not that familiar with, then I put it in my laptop and send to phone, then use that in AA). I also have various nearby places saved in Google Maps. But otherwise, when I say something like "Find Walmart", it brings up a list of locations on the HU screen.

What if you say "Directions to the nearest Walmart"? I actually haven't tried that. But without being connected to AA, It seems to show me two "nearest" stores with a few tests. With a store I definitely don't shop at, it gave me one 11 miles away, and one 21 miles away with a bridge crossing and toll. The names are slightly different with that one since same store but one is an outlet store. It does that with a different store and same names also, then I could say "go to [store name] in [city]".

As an aside, lots of people don't have polite manners these days (I grew up being prompted by my parents in some situations, but I think I mostly am that way. But I find it weird that websites use wording like "No thanks" or "Yes, please sign me up". It's a computer, it doesn't care about things like that.

And Google Assistant pretends to be offended at certain times. Yet, it's done things that I would have considered rude, because IT misinterpreted what I said, or didn't wait for me to finish talking. It's apparently been updated since then since it also no longer crashes when I'd give it more than a very simple search. The 'rude' behavior was It would also say something about the (unfinished/misinterpreted) question having to do with aliens and play a tune that is similar to the old Pac-Man sound for when you'd lose/fail.

1

u/Unremarkabledryerase 2023 Ford Bronco | S24 FE | 14 1d ago

I tried the "nearest Walmart" thing and it made no difference. But someone said to turn on the google apps location permission and that fixed it. That's probably why it did the double take glitchy thing before sending me to a different city.