[jastingo]

What I've always wondered is to what extent A/B testing is conducted after any such algorithm is implemented.

For example, does Google Maps send some users deliberately down a route that it thinks is suboptimal so that it can better learn traffic patterns over a wider range of roads? My instincts as a data scientist tell me this would be a great way to gather more data and to create a better system as a whole, but at the expense of some users having longer drive times for some routes.

Putting my tin foil hat on, I've long suspected that Waze is used as the experimentation platform for Google Maps in this way. Where I live, Waze presents some highly unusual routes that I know are not optimal having lived here forever, whereas Google Maps is more on point.