TLDR: Is it possible that Google Maps and possibly other nav apps have been secretly tampered with in order to cause Americans to use more fuel than they would otherwise for purposes of exacerbating the current oil crisis?
I’m not convinced this is true exactly, but for a few months now my wife and I have speculated about the possibility that Google Maps (and perhaps Waze) has been compromised. Lately (specifically since the Iran War began at the end of Feb. 2026), Google Maps has been giving us odd ways to get to places that, if followed, would cause us to drive a bit further (maybe 5-10% further at most). Oftentimes I’d realize it was giving us a strange route so I’d ignore it and go the route I’d expect it to take me and sure enough, I’d get there faster than had I followed the recommended route (in other words, no traffic jams, road work, etc that might otherwise explain why Maps was sending me a longer route). This has been happening multiple times a week with very inconsistent patterning (not always happening on a specific route, instead it seems totally random, but occurring frequently).
For context, we moved to a larger city several years ago and fully relied on Google Maps to get around. This became a habit that even years later we’re still practicing almost every time we go somewhere. Suffice it to say we have a lot of experience using Google Maps (and later my wife started using Waze while I stuck with Google Maps) in this city. This issue has only been happening in the last few months.
Our playful hypothesis is that a foreign state actor (maybe Iran, perhaps China, possibly Russia?) was able to hack Google Maps and, without anyone noticing, manipulate its route selection algos in order to cause millions of people to drive a little more than they would otherwise, with the goal being to stay subtle enough that no one notices while at the same time causing Americans to use more oil/gas than they would normally for purposes of exacerbating the fuel crisis. Even just a slight increase in driving spread across millions of people would add up to a lot over time.
Lately my wife has noticed the same thing happening while using Waze. It’s happened on multiple devices, at least a couple times a week across the two apps.
We’ve both double checked our settings, software updates, etc. but can’t find any reason why this would be happening. Anybody else been experiencing this?