In places like India, where landmark-based navigation is the norm or there aren't many road names (especially outside of large cities), Google Maps uses businesses as landmarks. A random example:

https://goo.gl/maps/JwVHDycGTfE2

Head southeast on hanuman galli Rd toward Kalyan-Badlapur Rd Pass by Gopal Cooperative Housing Society (on the left) 400 m

Turn left at Shubharamb Wedding Cards & Corporate Designs onto Kalyan-Badlapur Rd Pass by Hamilton Cycles Industry (on the right in 1.1 km) 1.9km

Huh, that's cool! That would be pretty useful in the US, too, for businesses on corners. Which is common.

OpenStreetMap has this. I don't see a use for it, but if someone sees a use for it, they're free to add it to the dataset. Seems you and others find it useful, and it's in there :)

You wouldn't be able to rely on "turn right and go through 2 stop lights" type directions derived from OpenStreetMap, traffic lights aren't mapped all that consistently.

Depends on where you are. I don't remember seeing inaccurate crossings in the Netherlands, and scrolling over some roads just now (some rural, some in towns, some in cities), it matches 100% with my memory (true positives and true negatives).

Germany also has good data, but I drive there much less so I can't vouch for it.

Belgium on the other hand... I haven't yet found missing roads, which is surprising given what the map looks like.

Ah, bummer :-(

It isn't super complicated data to capture, I think a single person could fill in a small to medium sized town in an easy weekend.

There's an issue where intersections aren't really mapped in OSM (at least in terms of priority, turn restrictions are increasingly captured), the pieces are all well modeled but there isn't much information about how they fit together.

Google maps does it in Japan, e.g. https://www.google.com/maps/@35.6738896,139.7673156,18z?hl=e...

Google Maps in Japan seems to be a few steps ahead of Google Maps in America, on a large number of details. I wonder who they have to compete with there.

Yeah, Google Maps in Japan knows a lot more, e.g. it shows actual road widths with delimited sidewalks or it tells you about train platforms and elevators when switching lines. The data is from a third party (ZENRIN, check the bottom of the screen) that provides an insane level of detail. Yahoo uses them, too, but Apple doesn't.

Ah. So it's not a question of Google having to assemble better data to compete with (insert other provider), it's a question of having local agencies that are much more proactive about assembling and maintaining accurate data than Google would be.

I think Yahoo Maps is actually pretty highly regarded there. This is secondhand knowledge though, so take it with a grain of salt

They're rendered on OSMAnd by the way. I was wondering how to turn them off the other day.

Can't you count intersections instead?

You could, but the number is usually much higher, counting can get iffy with complicated intersection, you need to worry about both sides, etc. Lights are usually only at major streets, so unless you're at the final steps of your journey, you will probably only be turning at lights.

Far from every intersection has a traffic light?