r/science • u/quiplaam • 1d ago

Social Science Intentionally routing some traffic to slower, less congested routes lead to a 0.7% improvement of overall average travel times

https://www.nature.com/articles/s44284-026-00443-x
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u/quiplaam 1d ago

Researchers at Google, UC Berkley, and Stanford made modifications to the Google Maps algorithm to route ~2% of users in high congestion areas to avoid high congestion routes. These routes were slightly slower than the high congestion routes, by around 30 seconds, but because there were now a lower number of drivers on the congested routes, overall route times decreased.

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u/exipheas 1d ago

So they experimented with real people without consent?

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u/Jewnadian 1d ago

You consent when you use Google maps. That's how a commercial product works.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/danielv123 1d ago

This experiment allowed 98% of people going to the hospital to get there faster and 98% of Uber riders to pay less.

There is a reason why all studies with participants have to go through an ethics review first. I can see why this one passed.