Yes, this is definitely a thing, just because the algorithm can’t know why a place has low traffic just that it does. So Google Naps routes people up and down Baxter Street in Los Angeles which is one of the steepest streets on Earth, for example. Or even in my little bumfuck town it would tell me to turn left across three lanes of traffic or something before telling me to take the route that avoids such a turn. Google drives like an asshole because Google doesn’t actually drive.
I call that the MapQuest way