Google adds Street View to driving directions

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 30 April 2008 02:30

Opinion and Analysis

Google has beefed up the driving directions feature of its Maps service by adding photographic images of intersections and other key points along the route.

The images come from Google Maps Street View feature, and were taken from car-mounted cameras so the perspective is very close to that seen through the windscreen (windshield).

Where Street View is available, users may click on the camera icon shown in the directions to get an image of the corresponding junction overlaid with a satnav-style arrow showing the required manoeuvre. Street View provides previous and next links to move back and forth along the route.

I tried using Street View on a short route in San Francisco, and it did seem to work as promised.

But exactly how this new feature could best be put to work escapes me at present. There seems to be no provision for offline use, so you'd need a wireless data service. More importantly, the previous/next links are very close together, making it difficult for a driver to select the right one from the screen of a mobile device such as a smartphone in a windscreen mount.

There's something of value here (imagine having satnav functionality on your phone or handheld without having to pay for annual map updates), but I think further evolution of the idea is needed before it becomes truly useful.

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