Google has announced significant updates to its Maps service, integrating more of its advanced AI technology, like what powers its search engine, to enhance the digital maps platform that has been popular for nearly two decades.

Recently, Google Maps achieved a milestone of over two billion monthly users, demonstrating the widespread reliance on the service for directions and navigation in daily life.

The new updates introduce Google’s AI-powered Gemini technology to Maps, transforming it from a simple navigational tool to a comprehensive entertainment guide.

 Starting this week in the US, users can now interact conversationally with Google Maps, asking for recommendations on activities, restaurants, bars, and attractions in specific neighbourhoods or cities.

Along with these recommendations, users will receive curated reviews from Google’s extensive database, collected over the years.  The updates will also provide more in-depth information on parking options near destinations and walking directions after parking, enhancing user convenience.

Google Maps General Manager Miriam Daniel described these changes as heralding a “new era” of maps, aiming to reshape how people navigate and explore. The new AI enhancements will also improve visual details, making it easier for drivers to anticipate which lane to stay in before upcoming turns.

He said that these AI-driven features aim to make Google Maps a navigation tool and a dynamic resource for discovering new experiences and planning outings.

 Google will also allow external developers to utilise the Gemini language models within Maps, enabling them to answer specific questions about locations such as apartments or restaurants. This feature will begin with a testing phase and includes a fact-checking process known as “grounding” to verify information accuracy. 

Google’s Waze app, which focuses on real-time driving directions, will also adopt conversational AI, allowing its 180 million monthly users to report hazards and traffic conditions. By integrating AI into Maps and Waze, Google aims to enhance the user experience while managing potential issues related to AI-generated misinformation, or “hallucinations.”

Google has faced challenges with AI “hallucinations” in other applications, where the technology has provided inaccurate information, such as erroneous cooking advice and historical facts.

By incorporating AI-driven insights, Google hopes to create a richer, more interactive user experience that moves beyond traditional map functionality.