I sometimes feel that Google Maps goes into what I call its "I feel like a country drive today" mode. I'm pretty sure it's usually slower because half the time I miss one of the 20 turns it's telling me to make--especially at night or if there's some multi-road intersection where the roads aren't at right angles. It's particularly annoying if there has been recent snow because the back roads tend to have snowdrifts or are otherwise just slow.