Google Maps Does Not Offer ‘Scenic Route’…Because It’s Racist? – "google" – Google News

You cannot make this stuff up.

X user @kaseyklimes, who worked as a researcher on Google Maps for several years, posted a now-deleted Tweet, claiming the reasoning behind the lack of a “scenic route” is woke DEI insanity.

“Inadvertently diverting foot traffic from low-income streets to high-income streets takes revenue and potentially tax dollars from already struggling communities and funnels it instead to richer communities,” he wrote on the platform.

In other words, people may spend money in nicer areas if a “scenic route” option was available on the app.

Klimes, who worked as a Senior UX Researcher for Google Maps between 2017 and 2021, also said that the global reach of Google Maps would add a “bias” across the system compared to the current model where each street has “an equal chance” at being used to direct foot traffic.

According to his unconfirmed claims, the issue is that programming “scenic” variables would add an inherent bias into the system that would likely predominantly direct users through high-income areas, for instance beautiful architecture or tree-lined streets.

This bias would then lead to Maps “inadvertently diverting foot traffic from low-income streets takes [and] tax dollars from struggling communities and funnels it instead to richer communities.”

Klimes’ thread has now been deleted, and his X account is now locked.

In response to the claims, a Google spokesperson said “This person left in 2021 and publicly stated they weren’t a decision maker – their posts don’t reflect the reality of product decisions for Google Maps, back then or now. In fact, we’ve launched many features to help people understand a route or find a scenic area – including Immersive View for routes which lets you explore places along the way, and the ability to search for “scenic spots near me” anywhere in the world. We’ll keep working on these types of features in the future.”