Google Maps Now Uses Street View To Show You Exactly Where To Make Turns (theverge.com) 25
Google Maps has received a small design update that will show Street View images of every road you're supposed to turn onto. "If you tap the image, Street View will open up to that location, showing an arrow in the direction you're meant to turn," reports The Verge. From the report: It's a small change, but it could make a difference at confusing intersections or for people (like me) who are very bad with street names. The change was spotted by Android Police. Unfortunately, the images display as tiny thumbnails until you tap to open them up, so while the addition is definitely helpful, it's not quite glanceable information -- you'll definitely have to tap to open every turn that you want to see in detail. The feature only appears to be on Android for now. But Google's iOS app usually has the same look and features, so it may just be a matter of time before it gets updated. Android Police also points out that Google changed the bottom navigation bar when getting directions. It takes up a bit more of the screen now, but it's also a bit more explicit about what tapping certain things will do. Altogether, seems like a smart change.
Huh. Thanks for that little data point... (Score:2)
I thought they already did this. Anyway, not to be annoying, but is it a slow news day? There is nothing at all more interesting to take up Slashdot space than some minor incremental and fairly obvious improvement in Google Maps for people that use it for in-car navigation?
All hail Google! (Score:2)
Google is the bee's knees!
Look, they even made the "avoid toll" sticky on mobile, and it only took what, eight years of complaining?
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Look, they even made the "avoid toll" sticky on mobile, and it only took what, eight years of complaining?
I've never seen nor heard of it. What does it look like, because I'm looking at both my Google branded browser and the Chrome browser on my iPhone (I'm terribly sorry, I just like my iPhone, I don't even know why), and I don't see any Troll Thingy...
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"Avoid tolls" on Google maps
How stupid is the average person? (Score:5, Funny)
Jeezuz fuck us, let's have an app that sends all these people onto train tracks and tells them to wait until a train hits them.
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Oh yes, some city have road layouts that make you think the urban planners used a pre-release beta version of a freeware game map editor with a buggy road layout randomizer that couldn't handle intersections with more than four exits. After several attempts, the urban planners got bored and decided to see how many roundabouts, freeway overpasses and junctions they could cluster together before everything slowed to a halt. Then after Mom called them down for dinner, they went back and finished off with the r
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...or you go someplace like Mexico, where each street seemingly has at least two or three different names to identify it and the name on the sign bears little or no relation to what Google thinks it's called. Its attempt at pronouncing those names is rather comical, too.
I'd imagine it would also be good for getting around places like China or Japan that don't use our alphabet: instead of trying to match up symbols that you can't read, just go in that direction.
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Someone clearly doesn't live some place with a history that predates cars. I live next to a six-way intersection. Go ahead, "turn left" there. You've got a 50/50 shot of guessing right. Then you can turn right at the five way intersection right up ahead for another 50/50 shot at guessing right.
Not to mention intersections where the Google driving instructions will tell you to "turn left" but in fact means "keep going straight because the road officially veers to the right despite that being a 90 degree turn
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missing the turn because you didn't have enough warning.
Sorry but your example is garbage. Very few people miss turns due lack of warning. People miss turns due to confusing intersections. People miss turns due to crap signs. People miss turns because GPS applications don't necessarily understand every tiny marking on the road that prevents people from taking the turns that they are instructed to take. People miss turns because governments label multiple roads with the same name. People miss turns because roads suddenly change names without warning.
A picture say
Old tech (Score:5, Informative)
Am I the only one who remembers this already almost a decade ago, back when Google Street View was fairly new? Back before it was assumed that everyone had a smartphone with GPS and a data plan, when you might still print out your Google Maps directions, there already was an option to add a Street View map to every turn.
I remember trying it once for a couple long trips to unfamiliar locations... And I pretty much found the photos pretty useless. Small maps that showed me the details of each junction? Yes, they were occasionally helpful. But photos of the turn often from an angle that wasn't the same as what I was looking at?
The only photo I found helpful was the final destination for a place I hadn't been to before. It was sometimes helpful to have a visual on that in advance. Obviously this is a bit different now with integration into an app in real time, but I personally would still just prefer an overhead traditional map view, which gives me a sense of context rather than a single perspective.
Re:Old Tech (Score:3)
I'm a truck driver, so my life is "long trips to unfamiliar locations". Street View is only occasionally useful to me, but Satellite View is a huge help because I can look at the place I'm going, confirm it's actually the company I want, (for some reason, addresses don't match up well out in the countryside), and see where the docks are, and which private, (usually dirt), road gets me there. The last thing you want to do in a seventy-some-foot-long truck is turn into a dead end. It's also extremely valuable
Another moment for focus off the road (Score:5, Insightful)
Google needs to be slapped. No distraction is acceptable. Hands-Free laws mean hands-fucking-free. Almost every state has them.
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And have you seen the accidents that happen in 'most other countries'?
They all have dashcams because shit has gotten that bad.
Pedestrians to run over (Score:3, Insightful)
Will it include pictures of good pedestrians to run over while you are operating a large object at high speeds while looking at your phone?