Google launches turn-by-turn navigation — for free
There’s a good chance you’ve driven with someone who’s purchased a fancy GPS navigation system for their car, which gives them voice directions for each turn as they drive. You may have bought one of those systems yourself, or maybe you purchased the $100 iPhone version from TomTom. Now Google says it’s releasing a version of Google Maps that does the same thing, and you won’t have to pay any money for it.
Google Maps Navigation is currently in beta testing, and will be available for free on phones using Google’s Android 2.0 operating system. Google’s Vice President of Engineering Vic Gundotra demonstrated the feature at a press event yesterday. You just say your destination out loud, either a specific address or just the name of the location — instead of typing in the start and stop location, you just say, “Navigate to the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco.” Then Maps Navigation tells you each turn you need to take.
As you might expect, Google is including a number of cool features (though many of these are part of the features you’d get planning on route using Google Maps through a regular web browser). When Maps shows you the route, you can see how traffic looks on different parts of your drive. You can also see your route in Street View, so you’ll know exactly what your turn looks like. And both the directions and maps are stored on your phone, so if you lose your cell connection, the system still works, as long as you don’t deviate from the route.
