[Python] Selenium + ChromeDriver crash when scraping Google Maps entries with Selenium on MacOS

I’m building a Telegram bot in Python that scrapes points of interest (POIs) from Google Maps using Selenium. The overall flow works, but as soon as I try to scroll through and click on the .hfpxzc elements, ChromeDriver crashes with a native stack trace.

What I’m trying to do is:

Open Google Maps search results for a list of POI types in a given location. Scroll through the results pane until no new entries load. Click each entry to extract its name, address, website, phone, rating, etc. Filter by geographic radius and return a list of POIs.

my function inside code where error happening:

def find_google_maps_pois(location_str, coords, poi_types, radius):
"""Scrape POIs from Google Maps using Selenium and filter by radius."""
types_str = "+".join(poi_types)
location_str = location_str.replace(" ", "+")
url = f"https://www.google.com/maps/search/{types_str}+in+{location_str}"

print(f"Searching Google Maps for: {url}")

options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
options.add_argument("--headless")
options.add_argument('--no-sandbox')
options.add_argument('--disable-dev-shm-usage')
browser = webdriver.Chrome(options=options)
browser.get(url)


wait = WebDriverWait(browser, 10)
wait.until(EC.presence_of_all_elements_located((By.CLASS_NAME, "hfpxzc")))

# pfull_html = browser.page_source

entries = browser.find_elements(By.CLASS_NAME, "hfpxzc")

SCROLL_PAUSE = 2
STUCK_LIMIT = 10
le = 0
while le < STUCK_LIMIT:
last = entries[-1]
browser.execute_script("arguments[0].scrollIntoView(true);", last)
time.sleep(SCROLL_PAUSE)
new_entries = browser.find_elements(By.CLASS_NAME, "hfpxzc")
if len(new_entries) == len(entries):
le += 1
else:
entries = new_entries
le = 0
body_el = browser.find_element(By.TAG_NAME, "body")

body_inner = body_el.get_attribute("innerHTML")

pois = []
seen_names = set()
bt = []


for entry in entries:
if True: #I now this is not correct with if True, just pass this
wait.until(EC.visibility_of_element_located((By.CSS_SELECTOR, "h1[class*='fontHeadlineLarge']")))

data = {}

# Name
data['name'] = browser.find_element(By.CSS_SELECTOR, "h1[class*='fontHeadlineLarge']").text.strip()

print("Name:", data['name'])

# Address (Google Maps often uses this button selector)
try:
data['address'] = browser.find_element(By.CSS_SELECTOR, "button[data-item-id*='address']").text.strip()
except:
data['address'] = 'Not found'

# Website
try:
data['website'] = browser.find_element(By.CSS_SELECTOR, "a[data-item-id*='authority']").get_attribute("href")
except:
data['website'] = 'Not found'

# Phone
try:
data['phone'] = browser.find_element(By.CSS_SELECTOR, "button[data-item-id*='phone']").text.strip()
except:
data['phone'] = 'Not found'

# Send back to user
result = "\n".join(f"{k.title()}: {v}" for k, v in data.items())
print("Result:", result)
# update.message.reply_text(result)




name = browser.find_element(By.CSS_SELECTOR, "h1[class*='fontHeadlineLarge']").text.strip()
print(f"Processing: {name}")
if name in seen_names:
continue
seen_names.add(name)

try:
phone = browser.find_element(By.CSS_SELECTOR, "button[aria-label*='Copy phone']").text.strip()
except NoSuchElementException:
phone = "N/A"

try:
address = browser.find_element(By.CSS_SELECTOR, "button[data-tooltip*='Copy address']").text.strip()
except NoSuchElementException:
address = "N/A"

try:
website = browser.find_element(By.CSS_SELECTOR, "a[aria-label='Open website']").get_attribute("href")
except NoSuchElementException:
website = "N/A"

try:
rating_text = browser.find_element(By.CSS_SELECTOR, "span.ceNzKf").text.strip()
rating, review_count = rating_text.split(" ")
rating = float(rating)
review_count = int(review_count[1:-1])
except (NoSuchElementException, ValueError):
rating = "N/A"
review_count = "N/A"

current_url = browser.current_url
lat, lon = None, None
if "@" in current_url:
parts = current_url.split("@")[1].split(",")
lat = float(parts[0])
lon = float(parts[1])

if lat and lon:
distance = geodesic(coords, (lat, lon)).meters
if distance <= radius:
pois.append({
"source": "Google Maps",
"type": ", ".join(poi_types),
"name": name,
"address": address,
"lat": lat,
"lon": lon,
"phone": phone,
"email": "N/A",
"website": website,
"rating": rating,
"review_count": review_count,
"notes": f"Google Maps URL: {current_url}"
})
browser.quit()
return pois

Continue reading...