You asked for a concrete example.

Forget I said Meiji Jingu, ask Google Maps to get you to “Kiyomasa’s Well” from Harajuku Station.

Now, for comparison, look at the directions for walking between Camden Station and Regents Park Open Air Theatre or the Waterside Café in Regents Park.

Last summer I was within Meiji Jingu Gyoen, we’d entered via Harajuku and I wanted to leave via Yoyogi. Some of the paths were closed so I couldn’t use the maps on signs within the area. Couldn’t use Google Maps either.

I also couldn’t use Google Maps to plan a rail journey from Hiroshima to Kanazawa. Perhaps this was possible using a desk top version, but I was in Japan wanting to plan a route.

This weekend I’m delivering a ridiculously long article to Venice. Google Maps keeps suggesting that I walk to Giardini Della Biennale from the Santa Maria Elizabetta part of Lido island.

Google Maps is, on the whole, terrific but it isn’t, quite yet, entirely reliable.