# GPS - back of buildings :(



## KVzippy (Oct 4, 2015)

Can anyone tell me why the navigation (Uber GPS) takes me to the back of the address of the pickup - behind the building I'm going to? Exasperating to say the least. Is Google navigation any better in this regard? TX.


----------



## bluedogz (Sep 12, 2015)

Happens all the time in both Philly and Baltimore. You get used to avoiding it.


----------



## Ben105 (Feb 27, 2016)

Two reasons may explain: 1. The rider was nearest the back of the building when they requested the ride. 2. The street address for the building is in the back, not front of the building.

I have had quite a few riders who were in their backyard or back of a building request a ride and that's where the pin drop goes. Where the backyard butts up against another major street, it directs me to the wall between their backyard and the street. I've had one ping where they pinged from their house, but their house butted up against a private drive. I went up to the private drive, but no one was there. Turns out there was a ravine between the private drive and the house (had to access the house from the subdivision), but because the private driveway was the closest GPS point to the house, that's where GPS lead me.


----------



## lyft_audi (Mar 3, 2016)

I think it's because when the Uber/Lyft app passes the pick up location to your favorite maps app, it sends the GPS coordinates versus the actual street address...

And, with GPS signals comes bad data... You can measure GPS coordinates to the same exact spot and get 4-5 different sets of coordinates within 23-30 feet of the actual location. Especially true with heavy tree cover or even bad weather.

Some GPS marking devices do a thing called "waypoint averaging" where it will measure you physical location about 2-3 times a second and mathmatically calculate them to more accurately pinpoint your location. I don't think mobile phones do that, but I might be wrong.

I think when the apps send you behind a building, it's because the pax used the default phones gps location versus typing it in...

When I end a ride, my google maps shows the entered data, and it's always numeric GPS coordinates and not an actual address. I will get a screenshot next time I drive.


----------



## UberTrip (May 3, 2016)

lyft_audi said:


> I think it's because when the Uber/Lyft app passes the pick up location to your favorite maps app, it sends the GPS coordinates versus the actual street address...
> 
> And, with GPS signals comes bad data... You can measure GPS coordinates to the same exact spot and get 4-5 different sets of coordinates within 23-30 feet of the actual location. Especially true with heavy tree cover or even bad weather.
> 
> ...


Correct. Per Uber's API scripts for requests it only sends the longitude and latitude with several other indicators such as your picture, surge amount, class of Uber, rating, etc. Your GPS, whatever application that may be tries to navigate you to that point with it's map data (roads, intersections, streaming traffic). The API for the requesting an Uber on the Pax side attempts to put it at an address that Google Maps Validation API can locate, if the house is new or not properly zoned this can cause issues with being behind the house or one next door. Before the customer sends the data to Uber they have the option of overriding it with a pin drop which we all dread.


```
"status": "accepted",
   "request_id": "b2205127-a334-4df4-b1ba-fc9f28f56c96"
   "product_id": "a1111c8c-c720-46c3-8534-2fcdd730040d",
   "driver": {
      "phone_number": "(555)555-5555",
      "rating": 5,
      "picture_url": "https:\/\/d1w2poirtb3as9.cloudfront.net\/img.jpeg",
      "name": "Bob"
   },
   "eta": 4,
   "location": {
      "latitude": 37.776033,
      "longitude": -122.418143,
      "bearing": 33
   },
   "pickup":{
      "latitude":37.7872486012,
      "longitude":-122.4026315287,
      "etaMin":5
   },
   "destination":{
      "latitude":37.7766874,
      "longitude":-122.394857,
      "eta":19
   },
   "vehicle": {
      "make": "Bugatti",
      "model": "Veyron",
      "license_plate": "I<3Uber",
      "picture_url": "https:\/\/d1w2poirtb3as9.cloudfront.net\/car.jpeg",
   },
   "surge_multiplier":  1.0,
   "shared": true
```


----------



## antisoshal (Jul 1, 2016)

The GPS issue is something I actually looked into with cook county here and got an answer that makes sense and is similar to the one above: According to Cook county, MOST GPS coordinates for address are made an arbitrary distance back from the street at the address. If you give Uber an address as a destination, it looks up the GPS coords for that address then hands those to MAPS. The arbitrary distance they assign is often closer to the back of the house than the front. On buildings and houses with back alleys or a route that terminates closer to the GPS lat and long, Google will route you there. In many areas of Chicago you will always be routed to the alley behind the address for this reason. The Cook county individual I spoke to said they have spoken to Uber about this and suggested changing their API to reverse look up the GPS to an address and pass that to MAPS it if available, but Uber says this would require a lot of work to integrate into their system and has suggested Cook county change the arbitrary distance assigned to each address in the county plat. Anyone who knows Chicago knows they will change NOTHING unless paid overtime and abribe, so thats never happening.


----------



## HERR_UBERMENSCH (Jun 3, 2016)

I always figured that people were in their back yards or at the back of the house when they first installed the Rider app and that is where they set their 'home' location. I get this All The Time, the one time I think I'm being smart and going to the front is that one time they are actually in the back.


----------



## lyft_audi (Mar 3, 2016)

I always double check the street name when I get close to the destination, because i'm so used to it sending me to back alleys and nearby streets instead of the actual one.


----------



## Jessie Newburn (Jul 4, 2016)

bluedogz said:


> Happens all the time in both Philly and Baltimore. You get used to avoiding it.


Yep, happens in Balto and the region here and there. Especially people who get picked up from retail work locations seem to know this problem and often go to a store or office next door to get picked up.


----------



## New2This (Dec 27, 2015)

Glad I'm not the only one this was happening to. Frustrating the shit out of me. 

First few times it happened I thought 'WTF are they living in a dumpster?'


----------

