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Google Maps Is Getting AR Directions, Recommendation Features (theverge.com)

Google Maps is getting a new augmented reality Street View mode to help you follow directions in real time, along with personalized recommendations to help you discover places in your neighborhood. The Verge reports: The new AR features combine Google's existing Street View and Maps data with a live feed from your phone's camera to overlay walking directions on top of the real world and help you figure out which way you need to go. In addition to directions, the new AR mode can help identify nearby places, too, and Google is even testing adding a helpful augmented reality animal guide to lead you along the way.

Maps is also getting a new tab called "For You" that will feature recommendations specifically tailored to you. Google is using a new "match number" system, which will generate a personal score on how much it thinks you'll like the recommendation based on your past likes and reviews, as well as your saved food preferences. Google is also adding more social features to Maps, making it possible to share multiple places to friends with a single action, and vote on them together in real time to decide where to go without having to leave the app.
The AR directions feature has no release date, but the new social and recommendations features will be coming to both Android and iOS later this summer.

38 comments

  1. Speed cameras please by Kartu · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'd rather they'd add something practical, so that I don't have to stick with Waze.

    1. Re:Speed cameras please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      For Android anyway I suggest Speed Cameras by Sygic. I don't work for them or know who does. But it does report the current speed limit as you're driving and where there are red light cameras. I paid a couple dollars for it but think the adware one would work too.

    2. Re:Speed cameras please by tomhath · · Score: 1

      Dash cams that have GPS usually have both speed camera and speed limit warnings.

    3. Re:Speed cameras please by Ross+Finlayson · · Score: 1

      And yet Waze is also owned by Google.

      Does anyone know why - after several years of being under the same company - Waze and Google Maps have *still* not been integrated? Google Maps seems to have a different (and much more comprehensive) database than Waze, but doesn't have many of Waze's features (like reporting police).

  2. And Just Who... by BlueStrat · · Score: 1

    ...Is going to pay for all the AR street-cleaners to clean up all the AR animal-guide poo? Who wants to track *that* all over your carpet from your AR shoes?

    Google is even testing adding a helpful augmented reality animal guide to lead you along the way.

    At least it wipes off, like with a cloth.

    Strat

    --
    Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
    1. Re:And Just Who... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      At least it's not Clippy.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    2. Re:And Just Who... by alvinrod · · Score: 1

      Or Microsoft Bob.

  3. And yet they don't add something useful... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That folks have been requesting for years that is supported on iPhone.

    For whatever reason, Google Maps on Android doesn't support Hands Free Profile, using A2DP instead, which means if you're using maps in your car and have them linked via Bluetooth and are listening to the radio, you'll never hear the voice guidance!

    The only solution at this time is some 3rd party work around, and Google keeps ignoring the requests to add.

    1. Re:And yet they don't add something useful... by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      People still listen to the actual radio? I use a streaming music app in the car; radio ads drive me nuts.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    2. Re: And yet they don't add something useful... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Oh look. It's you again.

      Yes, people still listen to the radio. Not everyone is such an ivory tower douche like you fluffynuts.

    3. Re: And yet they don't add something useful... by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Yes, people still listen to the radio. Not everyone is such an ivory tower douche like you fluffynuts.

      Practically every car being made today has both a line in and a USB in, and really every car being made today has one or the other. And this has been true for around a decade.

      You don't have to live in an ivory tower to not want to listen to commercials. Even if you don't have strong feelings about them, they're not the music you're trying to listen to.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    4. Re: And yet they don't add something useful... by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Well, I know many Apple users who gush over Apple music because it has things that... other streaming services had for years before. At least we can give him that he isn't part of THAT crowd.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
  4. Watch out for more zombies wandering into traffic by Bearhouse · · Score: 1

    Or slipping or tripping over things....
    As the experience becomes ever-more "immersive", people will increasingly forget they're living in a real, potentially dangerous world.

  5. Finally? by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 0

    Baidu Maps has had this feature since 2016. With the camera going and everything. Google, leading from behind.

    --
    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    1. Re: Finally? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Along with spying for the Chinese gov. Nice!

    2. Re: Finally? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The US government is far more of a threat to me than a distant foreign government. How many people did the US government kill last year? Was it more than ten thousand?

    3. Re: Finally? by Errol+backfiring · · Score: 1

      Along with spying for the Chinese gov. Nice!

      Off course. That is why Google cannot stay behind. Any service from Google rings an alarm bell, and if it contains the word "personalized", I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole.

      --
      Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
  6. I would add some AI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'd rather they'd add something practical, so that I don't have to stick with Waze.

    I would like they add AI on top of it, to further making the use of Google Map a much pleasant experience

    1. Re:I would add some AI by spire3661 · · Score: 1

      Or, as a human, you can make choices for yourself.

      --
      Good-bye
    2. Re:I would add some AI by gnick · · Score: 2

      you can make choices for yourself

      Navigation decisions are choices where I really appreciate an automated suggestion. I'm willing to give up the human part of me that used to drive around lost in exchange for help with those choices.

      "Where should I eat?" is something else entirely.

      --
      He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
  7. Even more advertising... by bradley13 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Maps is also getting a new tab called “For You” that will feature recommendations specifically tailored to you. Google is using a new “match number” system, which will generate a personal score on how much it thinks you’ll like the recommendation based on your past likes and reviews"

    Great, so instead of just helping you get to your destinition, you will be plastered with ads on the businesses you walk by.

    Also, with the current interface, like you would a paper map. With the AR interface, the temptation will be to hold the phone in front of your face, so that it replaces your view of the street. Anyone who thought phone-zombies were already bad - Google says "hold my beer".

    --
    Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
    1. Re:Even more advertising... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Great, so instead of just helping you get to your destinition, you will be plastered with ads on the businesses you walk by.

      It can't be a "personalized recommendation" if Google's getting paid to put them there. They need to call an ad an ad.

      Also, with the current interface, like you would a paper map. With the AR interface, the temptation will be to hold the phone in front of your face, so that it replaces your view of the street. Anyone who thought phone-zombies were already bad - Google says "hold my beer".

      At least they'll be viewing the actual street (through the camera) and so they'll hopefully see the open manholes, oncoming vehicles, light posts etc. Maybe Google will highlight hazards! Actually, hopefully not. Let Darwin sort them out!

    2. Re:Even more advertising... by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 0

      Having already used this with Baidu Maps, I can tell you that you don't really glue your face to it. It mostly says go straight ahead. If anything it makes you more attentive to the street, because if you put it in the background to do anything else on your phone, Google's aggressive task killing on Android means it stops tracking where you are and has to start over.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  8. or the opposite by bug_hunter · · Score: 1

    You know augmented reality is an overlay of what your camera shows - so you have less things in between you and your vision.

    I would predict that people would bump into stuff less while using walking AR, and that they wont mentally be teleported into a world detached from the consequences of reality.

    --
    It's turtles all the way down.
  9. New Feature by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How about Google Maps fix that idiotic half page result of a search before they add more crap?

  10. Great, now how about some damn image preloading? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All I want is the ability to automatically download the streetview images adjacent to my position in the background so when I click to move 10 feet down the road I don't have to wait while the ending scene of 2001 plays for a small eternity.

  11. It'd be more useful... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... if they'd reduce the memory use and speed up the normal map, even for older browsers. I can't really plan any local bike trip without having to restart the browser a couple times, typically because it became wedged or ran out of memory.

  12. Looking after drunk people by TJHook3r · · Score: 1

    I find the idea of a talking animal guiding me home after a few beers very comforting. If it can find me a good pizza on the way then bonus points! (Just don't use in Barcelona or any other pickpocket-prone area).

  13. Re:Watch out for more zombies wandering into traff by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    Right turn NOW!

  14. Re:Watch out for more zombies wandering into traff by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    Natural selection will simply sort out the immersive ones, and nothing of value will be lost.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  15. They can do so much better than an animal guide by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    BB-8 lead the way!

  16. Awesome! by Locke2005 · · Score: 2

    Now, if the AR could just tag all the people walking by, so I could identify the professional streetwalkers. I was walking down the street in Manhattan with this overdressed black lady asked me, "Do you have the time", so of course I looked at my watch... and she told me, "That's not what I meant!" Google, please put AR tags on these bitches for me!

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    1. Re: Awesome! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You must have looked like a desperate sex crazed virgin ready to blow his load.

      It says more about you than her. In Manhattan she could have asked 1000 people that question in the crowd, but she CHOSE YOU!

  17. Less useful than it was by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 1

    It's amazing how less useful Google maps is now than it used to be.

    I wanted to find where a road goes in my home town... and couldn't. The road is rendered in white (color:255,255,255) and the surrounding landscape is "barely off white" (color:235,233,239). The contrast between those two colors is so poor I simply *couldn't* follow the road windings across the landscape.

    Google maps is so useless that I had to get a real [paper] map to see where the road goes.

  18. Idiocracy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Are turn-based walking direction really so difficult to follow that you need AR arrows telling you which way to go? I could understand for driving and biking, but walking...

    The AR directions feature has no release date, but the new social and recommendations features will be coming

    Oh, nevermind. It's just to drum up marketing and provide distractions to their new data mining, advertising features.

  19. Perhaps better mapping algorithm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Instead of adding new features to Google Map, Google should work on improving the application! Using the direction part of the map application sucks!

  20. Augmented Animal Guide? Name it Clippy!!! by hduff · · Score: 1

    They should name the animal guide "Clippy".

    --
    "I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert