Google hopes the next time you’re looking for a new restaurant or something to do, you’ll find it with Google Maps. Powered by Gemini, Google’s generative AI model, Google Maps is getting a recommendations engine that curates experiences and suggestions based on your searches. It’s one of several new features coming to Google Earth, Waze and Google Maps in the coming weeks.
Instead of using the Google Maps search bar to type in an address or a generic term like “restaurant,” you can be more specific with requests. One demo Google showcased at a press event on Wednesday was searching for the term “things to do with friends at night in Boston,” which brought up recommendations in the city based on both location and context.Â
This generates a selection of activities with star ratings, photos and videos, while Gemini summarizes user reviews from Google Maps. You can also ask specific questions about these curated selections further down on the results page. But these Gemini-powered tools are invoked only when you start the search from within Google Maps, rather than querying from Gemini’s interface on device or through the Google app. However, Google Search will get similar AI review summaries when searching for places and the option to ask further questions about selections in the coming months.
Gemini and other AI chatbots are known to hallucinate, so Google is attempting to address this using a process it calls grounding. “We look at the billions of pieces of information in Maps to almost fact-check those answers,” said Miriam Daniel, vice president and general manager of Google Maps. “So the information you actually see in this experience, you can be confident that that place exists in Maps.”
This AI inspiration tool with Gemini is rolling out to all Google Maps users on iOS and Android in the coming weeks. Google Maps will also get detailed lane markings, crosswalks and signage in navigation view, with guidance to show which lane you need to take using the blue navigation line. Apple Maps already supports a similar lane guidance system. Weather reporting is also coming to Google Maps to mark disruptions like flooded roads or low-visibility on the road.
Waze is also getting a conversational reporting option powered by Gemini. Bring up the reporting button and speak in natural language to document incidents or objects in the road and it might ask follow-up questions to help categorize the report. I tried a using Australian slang term for traffic and after asking one follow-up, it understood that I was documenting heavy traffic up ahead. This feature is coming to the trusted testers program in English on Android and iOS, then to more users later.Â
Watch the video above for more on the new AI tools coming to Google Maps and a demo showing the features in action.