This is a problem that we can fix just by throwing data at it. Now that it&#x27;s possible for any app to know what routes people <i>actually</i> take, we can do even better. It&#x27;s possible to generate cost functions based on what people <i>actually do.</i><p>This would fix a lot of different types of problems. First: issues like the ones raised in the article. The killer &quot;roads&quot; have never had drivers successfully complete them, so they should have infinite cost.<p>It would handle construction. If the traffic in a route suddenly falls to zero, or suddenly goes from zero to lots, the cost functions can be updated to reroute.<p>It would handle dangerous neighborhoods. Route 31 was the most direct route between my first apartment and Pennsylvania. I once followed MapQuest directions on this route, and it turns out that it takes you through the part of Trenton that makes it one of the top-20 most dangerous cities in the nation (at the time). Nobody really drives this way, so it could route people via safer roads.<p>The problem here is that the companies that already have <i>good</i> databases are probably going to keep them secret, in case they figure out a way to turn that data into more ad revenue