Google Maps Navigation (Beta)

[music playing]
>> Navigate to the de Young Museum in San Francisco.
[music playing]
Hi, I'm Michael, and I'm a product manager on the Google mobile team.
I just drove from the Google office in Mountain View, California to the de Young Museum in
San Francisco. And I used a very exciting new feature of
Google Maps to guide me. I'm pleased to announce the Beta launch of
one of our most requested mobile features. Turn-by-turn, GPS navigation with voice guidance
is coming to Google Maps for android-powered phones.
Google Maps Navigation isn't your typical GPS navigation system.
Less than 1% of today's GPS navigation devices are connected to the cloud, but Google Maps
Navigation was built from the ground up for internet connected devices.
Being connected to the internet means you have all of Google's massive computing power
right in the palm of your hand. This means you have all the latest maps and
business data from Google Maps. So you never have to manually download map
and POI updates. But that's not all that happens when your
GPS navigation device is connected to Google. Let me show you seven things you can do with
Google Maps Navigation that you can't do with the GPS device you're probably used to.
If you've already got a navigation system, then you're used to fumbling around for the
exact address on the exact street in the exact city of your destination.
Otherwise, it doesn't work. Some folks even print out directions just
to make sure they type the right info into their device.
Some navigation systems do make things easier with pre-packaged POIs like restaurants or
gas stations, but they're not going to know about your favorite hole in the wall.
With Google Maps Navigation, you just say where you want to go, and Google figures out
the rest. You can enter your destination as an address,
a place, a name of a business, or even a kind of business.
Just enter it all as one string, like you would enter a search on Google.
If your search doesn't just have one single result, you can choose the one you want.
And don't worry if you misspell something, we'll figure it out.
Typing on a phone isn't always easy, so why don't we just say where we want to go.
Navigate to 1965 Page Street in San Francisco. Using Google Search by voice, you can speak
any destination you might type. This saves a ton of time and pain and it can
find nearly everything. Navigate to Mario's Bohemian Cigar Store Cafe
in San Francisco. Ha, imagine typing that in.
Now, let's say you're going to meet some friends to see the temporary and fantastic King Tut
exhibit, but which museum was it at? Let's try this.
Navigate to the museum with the King Tut exhibit in San Francisco.
Here it is. Because Google Maps Navigation is connected
to the cloud, it's using all the latest information on the internet.
And the King Tut exhibit is at the de Young Museum at Golden Gate Park.
One of my favorite features of Google Maps Navigation is the live trafic data.
If you look in the corner of the screen, you'll see the traffic light glowing green, yellow,
or red based on the current traffic along your route.
Just tap it to zoom out to "Traffic View," an aerial view of you're upcoming route with
traffic conditions showing right on the map. As you drive, the traffic data is updated
every few minutes using the latest information available on Google Maps.
So no more wondering when that highway's going to stop feeling like a parking lot.
And if you are stuck in traffic, you can choose an alternate route to avoid it.
While you're navigating, it's easy to find places you might want to stop at along the
way such as gas stations, restaurants, or parking.
You can use the "Layers" menu for easy access to popular places like these.
But you can also search your route for anything. Like my favorite road trip stop: In-N-Out.
When you do a search while navigating, Google looks for the closest places along you're
route. Finding the most convenient burger joints
has never been easier. One of the most popular features of Google
Maps is satelite feed, because it's a high fidelity view.
Imagine how valuble having that high fidelity view is while you're navigating.
Satelite view can help you visualize your route, where you're going, and what the context
is. And being connected to Google means you can
access satelite imagery anywhere. It's all downloaded, as needed, over your
phone's internet connection. As you drive along you're route, all GPS systems
will show you a map and give you voice instructions. Some even show special representations of
your turn, maybe an artist's rendition of a highway.
Google Maps Navigation uses "Google Street View," actual street-level photo imagery with
your route overlayed to show you exactly what your turn will really look like.
At at the end of your route, all GPS systems will tell you the address of your destination,
and some, even the side of the road. Google Maps Navigation does this too, but
it also shows you the actual street view of your destination, whether it's a store front
or a home. You probably don't want to place your phone
loose on your car's dashboard. So we recommend you use Google Maps Navigation
with a car dock. Some phones, like the Verizon Droid, has specially
designed car docks for the device. When you place your phones in one of these
car docks, your phone will go into car mode giving you easy access to voice search and
navigation. This special car dock mode makes it easy to
start navigation while at arms length. So those are just some of the things that
are different about Google Maps Navigation: Google's approach to internet connected GPS
navigation system. And since you're probably wondering about
this: yes, Google Maps Navigation is free, though carrier data plan charges may apply.
It's coming soon to android powered phones. So stay connected with Google Maps Navigation
for search in plain english, fresh live maps and traffic data, and street and satelite
views.