Google Maps gets its biggest navigation redesign in a decade, plus more AI
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I hope it doesn't start sending us into lakes, where it creates a confabulated short cut. It's ideal the way it is, with directions when needed. I don't want to chat with a map app.
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The only question I’d have is where is the opt-out option so I don’t have another spot on my app’s screen that I never want to touch.
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Maybe it's me, but a clean map is a lot less confusing to read while you are driving than a 3D map with buildings and crap.
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But this route takes you via a sponsor!
Just plugging FOSS map fun: CoMaps. And you can edit in-app, which is nerd bait.
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Remember when Google Maps just told you to drive down a road that was closed, or jeep trail, or a footpath? Now it will hallucinate whole countries, states, cities and tell you to drive there.
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All I want is a simple OLED theme. I don't need fancy 3D graphics based on data that's 2+ years out of date.
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While I don't want AI crammed in every available orifice, I don't think it's ideal the way it is now. In fact, I've felt the it's gotten much worse in the last 10 years. One of my main issues is it constantly deciding to suddenly change the directions it's giving right as I'm coming up on a turn. It's like someone in the passenger seat suddenly shouting "NO NO TURN LEFT TURN LEFT" when you're in the right lane.
It also does a worse job of deciding which zoom level to show you at any given time, and the colors it chooses for the route overlays are often confusing. I say all this as someone who has been using GPS since the 90s. Including spoken navigation (including street names) and lane assist. In many ways, the current Google Maps is inferior to what we we had back then.
I do fear the fancier they make it look, the more like touchscreen environmental controls it becomes. Something that requires so much focus that it distracts from driving.
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Hasn't Apple Maps had the Immersive Navigation since like 2021? I've only owned Android phones but I've been with friends while they drive, and this pseudo-3D is what I remember it looking like. It also seems a bit smoother when updating your position; Google Maps is a little jerky at times, and it really struggles with taking roundabouts with any sort of speed. I assume it's using inertial measurements and when you change directions quickly, it takes a second to catch up.
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I'm assuming to use Gemini AI in Maps I have to use it everywhere else and agree to have it scoop more of my info?
Pass.
Pass.
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My brain does not process 3d when it comes to maps. Too much noise, I need to take my eyes off the road and stare at the screen for a few seconds to figure it out. Not something compatible with me driving safely at all.
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caution live frogs
Ars Centurion
Even more happy that I deleted Google Maps years ago.
At launch Apple Maps was way behind, and it took a very long time for it to catch up - but it has been the only navigation app I have used for years now, and I see no need whatsoever to have a competitor’s map app on my device. Clicking any map link in web browser always opened Google, regardless of my personal preferences, so I deleted the damn thing.
Google’s map options, like their search engine, used to be hands-down the best, and exactly like the search engine, they ruined it by focusing on advertising over functionality.
At launch Apple Maps was way behind, and it took a very long time for it to catch up - but it has been the only navigation app I have used for years now, and I see no need whatsoever to have a competitor’s map app on my device. Clicking any map link in web browser always opened Google, regardless of my personal preferences, so I deleted the damn thing.
Google’s map options, like their search engine, used to be hands-down the best, and exactly like the search engine, they ruined it by focusing on advertising over functionality.
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If you can download your local map, then go offline entirely by turning off data, and still have it functionally no different than it was at its peak in the past, sure.
If you have to stay online and have it telling you things to use it, fuck off.
If you have to stay online and have it telling you things to use it, fuck off.
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I see many people didn't actually read the article. There's absolutely nothing in it that says Google is using Gemini to create map data or even do route planning. Kind of why would they - they have a pretty good route planning system already.
I'm a bit worried the "immersive" thing is too visually busy, but I have wished for it to warn me about quickly-upcoming actions I need to take more than it does, so hopefully that part will be satisfactory. I'd really like it to be able to tell me which direction I want when I'm leaving a motorway, as it's often not very prompt with that and that can cause issues picking the correct lane on the exit slip. Sure I can look at the screen, but I do really feel like I shouldn't have to.
"Exit the motorway and prepare to take the third exit" would be the kind of thing I'd like in that case.
That said there's a roundabout near me it doesn't think is a roundabout so...
I'm a bit worried the "immersive" thing is too visually busy, but I have wished for it to warn me about quickly-upcoming actions I need to take more than it does, so hopefully that part will be satisfactory. I'd really like it to be able to tell me which direction I want when I'm leaving a motorway, as it's often not very prompt with that and that can cause issues picking the correct lane on the exit slip. Sure I can look at the screen, but I do really feel like I shouldn't have to.
"Exit the motorway and prepare to take the third exit" would be the kind of thing I'd like in that case.
That said there's a roundabout near me it doesn't think is a roundabout so...
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This always made me crazy about GPS navigation. None of the apps reliably show the next instruction after the current one.
I am old enough to predate these things and I learned to navigate with written directions and sometimes a co driver. I never did road rallies but my co driver did and picked up some habits, like always giving the direction after next so I could plan ahead.
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My daughter doesn't know basic routes because she is so dependent on turn by turn all the time.
As we outsource all our thinking, we become dumber.
As we outsource all our thinking, we become dumber.
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Watching the two sample videos leaves me feeling that I'd have to keep watching the map screen to see what happens next as the 3d view unfolds, rather that see it all in one top-down overview. Also, I know my attention would keep getting snagged by 3d inconsistencies, like the car seeming to go over the underpasses or any differences between the 3D and actual buildings. But maybe they'll let me turn it off if it gets too distracting.
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Apple Maps really shines for walking directions, especially with Apple Watch integration. Honestly the first time I've gone "Damn that's cool" over an app in years was walking around Venice's callis. It wasn't perfect - both it and Google Maps were confused differently over the water-bus schedules and piers.
I do like the hazard and police warnings in Waze for driving but agree Google Maps has grown enshitified - I mostly use it for searching for restaurants and businesses. I find the reviews better and more transparent than the Yelp reviews Apple Maps uses. I can see the astroturfing in Google reviews while Yelp is showing ratings based upon its protection-scheme filtering.
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ubercurmudgeon
Ars Tribunus Militum
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Old method:
- Click on Search Nearby button.
- Enter 'restaurant'.
- Get results.
- Recite the incantation "Maps, maps on my smartphone, what is the fairest restaurant of them all?"
- Wait while a dozen graphics cards spin up in datacentres across the world.
- Get response, "Tables as white as marble, advertising payments to Google as large as an elephant, the fairest restaurant of them all is... Taco Bell."
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I'd love to use Google Maps again. I find the interface to be better in Android Auto than Waze... but Waze has kept things simple, it has better route planning, and it seems more aware of current traffic conditions. Nobody wants AI in their map app. It's stupid. Literally the dumbest addition I've ever seen to Google Maps. If I want to find some place to eat, I don't need an LLM's assistance. And I certainly don't need to roll the dice on whether or not it's going to accurately get a reservation for me and my friends. If I want a reservation, I can go through the arduous task of using OpenTable or, I don't know, actually calling a restaurant.
I hate this.
I hate this.
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Sometimes it seems that the software industry as a whole has never really had to grapple with the idea that a product is "done".
Maps were done. Word processing is done. Outside of unending security updates, even operating systems seem kind of done. Please stop "enhancing" these completed products.
Maps were done. Word processing is done. Outside of unending security updates, even operating systems seem kind of done. Please stop "enhancing" these completed products.
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Don't worry, soon you won't even have to do that. All restaurants will be Taco Bell!
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I can see how the semi-opaque building thing might be useful, based on the image shown. A bit more guidance when it comes to rapid directions just after the next turn would be welcome, and so would more context when Maps offers me an optional route change that would be 5 minutes longer.
I hate that this is all bundled up with AI stuff I don't want and probably can't get rid of, though. My response to the headline itself was "Ugh... okay, maybe it's not so bad," not "Cool, wonder what's new?". Congrats, Google. Although it's quite clear by now that the users' wants rank far less than investor expectations or advertiser priorities.
I hate that this is all bundled up with AI stuff I don't want and probably can't get rid of, though. My response to the headline itself was "Ugh... okay, maybe it's not so bad," not "Cool, wonder what's new?". Congrats, Google. Although it's quite clear by now that the users' wants rank far less than investor expectations or advertiser priorities.
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I feel like a standard question that should be answered in any article like this going forward is, "And how can the luddites and luddite-adjacent folks that haven't bought into the AI In Everything bullshit disable this?"
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HUSH!
I think the only reason Google Earth is still good is because management completely forgot about the product.
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WIth Google, especially, they change interface elements so often and engage in dark-patterns too...it is hard to keep such things up to date.
The only universal answer--is to not use Google services and stop being their product wherever possible, alas. It would be nice if that wasn't the only viable play--but that is where we are.
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