Google Maps turns 20, adds AI features, new countries to beat Apple

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Maps turns 20, adds AI features, new countries to beat Apple

Two decades ago,

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co-founder Larry Page had an idea that would forever change the way we navigate the world.

“Larry drove down some of these streets with a video camera and handed it to someone and said, ‘Hey, what can you do with this?'” said Maria Biggs, technical program manager at

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Street View, a prominent feature in

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Maps.

In a car equipped with the latest Street View camera, Biggs took CNBC on a ride near

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’s Silicon Valley headquarters. First introduced in 2022, it’s the first camera model that can be added onto any car, rather than being built into the vehicle.

“We’re going to Hawaii with these next generation camera systems because we don’t have to ship the whole car,” Biggs said. “We can just put the camera system in a box and ship it there and then rent the car when we’re there.”

Biggs said the new technology will allow

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to update data on some places for the first time in 10 years.

“We’re going to be able to easily move these cameras around and have more freshness in our maps,” she said.

With more than

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,

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Maps is the world’s

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navigation app. As Maps approaches its 20th anniversary in February,

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is working hard to keep that lead, with the help of the new cameras, as well as generative artificial intelligence.

The more nimble cameras are allowing

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to make updates to dozens of countries. It’s also mapping at least three new ones — Bosnia and Herzegovina, Namibia, and Liechtenstein. Street View cameras are a significant part of how

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gathers data for Maps, but it also relies on satellite and aerial images, and information from more than 1,000 third-party sources, such as local governments and users. That mass data collection system allows

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to offer maps in more than 250 countries and territories. 

Street View hardware operations’ Tom Nora installs

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’s newest camera system on a car in Palo Alto, California, on November 15, 2024. First introduced in 2022, it’s the first model that can be used on any car rather than being built-in, helping

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Map new countries.

Marc Ganley

AI enhancements

In October,

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enabled Maps with Gemini, its generative AI chatbot. Gemini can help find places that meet a detailed set of specifications, like a dog-friendly sports bar with TVs and outdoor dining. It can summarize thousands of reviews, give drivers real-time reports of disruptions like unplowed roads or flooded areas, and overlay weather conditions on an immersive view along the way.

On public transit,  there are now delay reports, alternate routes, and details like subway entrance locations. At the destination, Maps can make parking suggestions and then help with walking directions from there. 

Gemini is also enabling voice-activated reports in Waze, which

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bought in 2013 for $1.3 billion. That data gets fed into

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Maps to help alert drivers on both apps about hazards in real time.

“We hope that our products are helping people navigate more confidently and safely,” said Chris Phillips, vice president and general manager of

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Geo, the division that runs Maps. He said Waze is also helping improve safety on roadways by “letting people know a particular street has had issues in the past, and we’ve seen a noticeable change in people’s behaviors when they’re driving down those streets.”

Waze is also known for offering alternate routes.

“We’ll give you some more provocative maneuvers along the way,” Phillips said, when it comes to “beating the traffic and getting around.”

But alternate routes have also

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in some neighborhoods, where small roads can be ill equipped to handle many cars.

Phillips said

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only uses public roads and works with the local authorities to adhere to rules for specific streets.

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Geo VP and General Manager Chris Phillips shows CNBC’s Katie Tarasov around the

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Street View garage in Palo Alto, California, on November 15, 2024.

Marc Ganley

“The use of these navigation apps, whether embedded or on smartphone devices, is almost universal,” said James Hodgson, who covers automotive for ABI Research.

Hodgson said that one problem currently is that the technology is targeted on a user-by-user basis. To improve efficiency, he said, “we are approaching a point where there needs to be a broader, almost fleet-level view.”

A major “perception barrier”

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has faced, Hodgson said, is around data privacy.

Identifying information like faces and license plates are blurred on

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Maps, and users can

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. 

Users can also turn off location history or delete places they’ve been. Certain places like

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are auto-deleted. In December,

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started keeping location history on devices

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making it tougher for

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.

Making a profit

How much

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spends, and makes, on Maps is shrouded in secrecy. Parent company Alphabet doesn’t break out Maps in its

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. One of the only estimates comes from a 2019

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report forecasting Maps would go from $2.95 billion in revenue in 2019 to $11 billion in 2023.

The revenue is largely built on a model that

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knows well: advertising.

“We’re always focused on giving people the result, when they’re searching for a restaurant or a place, that most accurately fits what they’re searching for, ” Phillips said. “And merchants have the opportunity to actually pay for advertising in order for their place to show up in that list.”

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also makes money by selling a software interface with detailed data to solar companies looking for new customers. It has highly accurate rooftop images, measurements, elevation and shading for some 480 million buildings across 40 countries.

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sells access to its

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to companies including Wayfair and Dominos. Developers have used it to build more than 10 million sites and apps for things like food delivery, ridesharing and real estate. For example, in 2019, Uber said it paid

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$58 million for its mapping technology over the previous three years.

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’s

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, with Maps, also makes money. It powers the infotainment systems in many cars from Polestar, Volvo,

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,

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and

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.

As robotaxis go mainstream, accurate mapping is crucial, and a big opportunity for

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.

Alphabet-owned Waymo dominated the U.S. robotaxi market in 2024, and passengers in Phoenix can hail one of the fully autonomous cars directly from the

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Maps app. Robotaxis also present the potential for a virtuous cycle.

“I think an ambition for Waymo, and something that we see from almost every other autonomous vehicle platform provider, is to try to close that loop and to use the same vehicles that benefit from the map to also contribute to the creation of that map,” Hodgson said. “That is the future of where mapping is going for autonomous driving.”

Watch the video learn more.

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#Maps #turns #adds #features #countries #beat #Apple

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