Google announced on Thursday various innovations for its various geolocation and mapping services using artificial intelligence. They aim to make Google Maps and the Waze app more intuitive and complete. With its two billion monthly users and 100 million daily updates, Google Maps will put the web giant’s Gemini AI at the service of recommendation and information search. Users will now be able to receive activity suggestions and recommendations by simply asking questions such as: “What to do with friends in the evening” for a given location. Gemini will also offer summaries of reviews from other users about various places, like bars or restaurants, and offer the ability to ask specific questions. Users will thus be able to obtain detailed information, for example on the presence of outdoor tables or the atmosphere of the place. These new features will first be available in the United States starting this week on iOS and Android.
Among other optimizations, such as improved parking assistance, Google will also introduce a new feature that allows you to better plan stops when planning a trip. Before leaving, it will be possible to explore points of interest along the route, such as tourist sites, restaurants or viewpoints.
Finally, the Immersive View functionality for Google Maps routes will expand to 150 cities around the world, including Brussels, Kyoto and Frankfurt. This service, which allows you to visualize a route with an immersive 3D view, is enriched with new details and now integrates university campuses to discover the places as if you were there, Google reports.
As for Waze, the popular community GPS navigation app will include the ability to report road problems and incidents to other users without needing to touch a button. The service will in fact deploy a conversational voice reporting system. This will allow “wazers” to speak naturally to indicate traffic jams, objects on the road or closed roads, for example. This feature will first be available in beta and in English to trusted Waze testers around the world on Android and iOS starting this week. It will be extended to other users and other languages in the coming months, Google says.
