Google just announced a couple of fairly major Gemini AI-powered updates to Google Maps. Ask Maps is a a chatbot that produces personalized responses to questions—essentially an intermediary that sifts the data so you don’t have to, taking into consideration your known preferences (with all that entails: not necessarily good). Immersive Navigation is a 3D mode full of suggestions:

When it’s helpful, Maps will highlight critical road details like lanes, crosswalks, traffic lights, and stop signs to help you make that turn or merge confidently. This spatial understanding of your route is made possible with help from Gemini models, which analyze fresh, real world imagery from Street View and aerial photos to give you an accurate view of things along your route, like landmarks and medians.

Includes voice guidance in more natural language and explaining the pros and cons of alternate routes. All of which requires that the underlying map data be accurate and up to date. We’ve already seen what happens when people blindly follow GPS/satnav driving directions that are in error or out of date; if anything people have proven to be more even credulous with AI chatbots. So we’ll see how this goes.