{"id":520089,"date":"2026-03-13T00:03:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T00:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/520089\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T00:03:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T00:03:07","slug":"gemini-is-now-your-permanent-passenger-in-google-maps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/520089\/","title":{"rendered":"Gemini Is Now Your Permanent Passenger in Google Maps"},"content":{"rendered":"

Get ready to start seeing \u201cGemini is my copilot\u201d bumper stickers. On Thursday, Google announced<\/a> that it is reconfiguring its Maps app around its AI assistant Gemini, which will now be able to answer your questions while on the road via the new \u201cAsk Maps\u201d feature.<\/p>\n

The feature, accessed via a new \u201cAsk Maps\u201d button, is meant to turn Maps into a sort of concierge for the car, allowing users to ask conversational-style questions and get specific answers. In a blog post announcing the feature, Google offered a few examples like: \u201cMy phone is dying \u2014 where can I charge it without having to wait in a long line for coffee?\u201d or \u201cIs there a public tennis court with lights on that I can play at tonight?\u201d<\/p>\n

Gemini, using the wealth of user-submitted data and information from the web and businesses themselves that Google has collected over the years about businesses and destinations, should be able to wrangle up an answer. In theory, it should certainly be more convenient than having to keyword search through user reviews to see if anyone has mentioned the information you\u2019re after\u2014especially if you\u2019re asking while on the road. Google claims it has amassed information from over 300 million locations, including reviews from more than 500 million contributors.<\/p>\n

Google will also be tapping into the information that it knows about you, of course. (You might recall that Google also recently introduced an opt-in feature for Gemini called \u201cPersonal Intelligence<\/a>\u201d that pulls information from your search history and photo library, among other you-specific sources.) According to the company, results are personalized based on your past destinations and searches. So if you frequent vegan restaurants and you ask Google Maps, \u201cMy friends are coming from Midtown East to meet me after work, any spots with a cozy aesthetic and a table for 4 at 7 tonight?\u201d the app will default to highlighting spots with vegan options on the menu.<\/p>\n

The other big update to Google Maps is an overhaul of the navigation interface. Google is giving the layout of the road a 3D overhaul, basically unflattening the world as visualized in maps to more accurately reflect features like buildings, overpasses, and terrain. It\u2019ll also display notable safety items like crosswalks, traffic lights, and stop signs to give a better picture of what is ahead of you.<\/p>\n

Voice guidance is getting an update, too, to offer easier-to-understand instructions. If you\u2019re getting off a highway in two exits, Maps might say, \u201cGo past this exit and take the next one for Illinois 43 South.\u201d Google claimed it\u2019ll also add more clarity around the \u201cfinal mile\u201d of a trip, highlighting things like building entrances, nearby parking, and which side of the street to be on.<\/p>\n

Per Google, Ask Maps is out now in the U.S. and India on Android and iOS, with the feature arriving on desktop in the near future. Immersive Navigation seems like it\u2019ll be a slower rollout, as the company said it\u2019ll be available in the coming months for \u201celigible\u201d iOS and Android devices, as well as on CarPlay and Android Auto.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Get ready to start seeing \u201cGemini is my copilot\u201d bumper stickers. On Thursday, Google announced that it is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[181,11458,168,3110,81006,74],"class_list":["post-520089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-gemini","tag-google","tag-google-gemini","tag-google-maps","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}