They are not routes. They are pins connected by straight lines. The screenshot in the post doesn&#x27;t reflect the reality of the service. Try clicking on NYC, Washington DC, Detroit and Boston and see the route. Prepare to do some swimming :-)<p>That&#x27;s by design. From the FAQ:<p>&gt; How come if I click on two points along a curvy road, the line doesn&#x27;t follow the curvature of the road?<p>&gt; Two reasons. First, Google doesn&#x27;t provide an interface to the road data, so I have no way of knowing if you clicked on a road or not, nor do I know where the road twists and turns.<p>&gt; Second, many people create routes that go off-road (e.g. to plot a hiking path). These people wouldn&#x27;t want RouteBuilder to follow along a road anyway.<p>From the wording of the mail and of the ToS [1] I don&#x27;t think that it would make any difference if he used the Google Directions API [2]. Actually, after reading that letter I wonder what developers can use that API for, if not for eventually getting that letter.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;developers.google.com&#x2F;maps&#x2F;terms#section_10_4" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;developers.google.com&#x2F;maps&#x2F;terms#section_10_4</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;developers.google.com&#x2F;maps&#x2F;documentation&#x2F;directions&#x2F;intro?hl=en" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;developers.google.com&#x2F;maps&#x2F;documentation&#x2F;directions&#x2F;...</a>