Yeah, I don't. I just get "Sorry. I could not understand that." if I remember correctly.
> 3) I don't know why you expect a computer to answer this question well at all. [...] Instagram photos are unlikely to be representative of a whole
Sure, but I defined the query pretty clearly, and I just want to answer the "general" question of "Are people generally wearing masks in that area or not" and I already babysat that question into a data query that could use the Instagram API plus some object detectors.
I understand it's hard for one person to write code that could formulate and piece together that graph, but I feel like it should be a tractable engineering problem for Google.
If you expect more, than your problem does not lie with voice assistants, it lies with search technology itself. "Expecting" these questions to be answerable is unrealistic given current capabilities. Working backwards from the UX would produce nothing better because your expectations are thwarted not by poor design, but by the limits of state of the art technology.
Actually, in the Boston area, it's "Route 128." Despite it never being indicated as such at exits or on maps.
You have omitted the rather important qualifier “Southern” from your description, as that usage is a key differentiator between Northern and Southern California.
I moved to Northern California (Santa Clara County) in the late 80s and I still use the same monikers. If I take a trip to Big Sur, I tell folks I am going to take the 17 to PCH and drive down. Old habits die hard.
https://www.kcet.org/shows/lost-la/the-5-the-101-the-405-why...
— https://www.kcbx.org/post/how-you-refer-us-101-says-lot-abou...
1) I get the correct response; Assistant first asks me if I want to use "air check", I say yes, and get the correct response.
2) I get appropriate responses when I ask "What is the closest gas station to Mt. Shasta." Because the approaches are mostly from Rt. 5, you'll have no problem getting a usable response. Another approach from Rt 89 exists, so I don't know how you expect Google to know which "mountain pass" you mean. However, should you ask Google "What is the closest gas station to Mt Shasta on Rt 89", you will get an appropriate response. Should you be approaching from the opposite side of the mountain, unlikely though that is, Rt 5 or Rt 89 would still be the closest
3) I don't know why you expect a computer to answer this question well at all. I'm not aware of an API that would track this sort of thing. Google doing this itself, at scale, for any popular destination would be a very large project in ML with a very high error rate: Instagram photos are unlikely to be representative of a whole, the data set for a given location may be sparse, and especially for an outside location it is entirely likely (as I did at a local pumpkin farm) that people at an outside tourist destination will move away from a crowd, remove their mask, and take a nice photo safely, while people in close proximation still adhere to appropriate social distancing. Effective use would also need to be real-time: from day-to-day a given location could attract people that wear masks, and the next day a large group does not, especially in the > 300 square mile area you specified. It is not reasonable to expect this question to be meaningfully answered by either a human or a computer.