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TomTom, NDRIVE, CoPilot and Garmin have all just collectively cowered in fear as rumor has it Google is set to provide true offline navigation this summer. A player inside the Dutch telecom industry apparently reveal as much to All About Phones, a Dutch site focused on mobile.
Google has already had caching in Maps for quite some time, but it wasn’t like services provided by CoPilot and NDRIVE which don’t require internet connections at all. (Meaning you could use navigation on your WiFi-only tablet.) With caching inside of Maps, you can slip outside of a coverage area and still get navigation directions for quite some time, but you’re still left in the dark if you leave the area that’s cached and still can’t seem to grab a connection.
And considering this is Google, if this rumor turns out to be true, the cost of $0 would all but make navigation decisions easy for most Android users. (I’m aware there’s still a market for premium turn-by-turn apps that have a lot more features than Google Maps.) If true, all of this is set to go down this summer. [via Engadget]
Sign me up!
Yes please! Even though it’s still pretty useless for me untill navigation is supported in Norway. It’s incredible how slow Google can be in releasing their services in other countries than USA.
Considering there are over 10 million US users, but all of Europe hasn’t yet reached the 3 million mark, the only thing that is “incredible” is that they’d spend time developing something as complex as free nav for a low-sales-volume country like Norway at all.
So a small state in the US with little google users should suffer the same fate… I think so !
yeah and then state starts a lawsuit for discrimination :)
… us citizens are crazy with their lawsuits :)
How come? We do have navigation in Czech Republic..
have never used nav when not under coverage, but will be usefull since this friday I will get my drivers license and I don’t know any routes to anything other then my neighbours!
Don’t turn into one of those fools who can’t read a map or know how to navigate/get around without technology as they’ve become GPS dependent.
I can read maps just fine…its that I just don’t want to bother remembering what times my tram/trains leave, since I can take sooo many different ones, that remembering the times is too much trouble, especially when they change so often.
So far I got by, with just stand there and get in what comes first….worked decently, but it would be better if I got a notice, that the next train is leaving soon, so I can hurry and catch it or…if its delayed that I dont need to rush….
Other then that,….I dont mind being gps dependant for visiting places Ive never been to before…..as long as I know my way to work, neighbourhood, friends and family by heart and dont forget how to read a map
Been waiting for this for a long time. Make it happen, Google.
Hear that?… That was the sound of Garmin/Tom Tom/etc crapping their pants…
Perfect for my wifi only zoom.
Can’t happen too soon.
Would be interesting to see how this affects the internal memory “low memory” alerts and market “low memory can’t download app” alerts. Most users of smartphones don’t root their android phones so unless internal memory on Android phones is higher or maps app loads to SD card, most users would have trouble if the maps store on internal memory only.
I see it as a set of maps downloadable from Market, or Maps would download the ones you need and put them on SD like many today’s games do.
Way to go Google! This will effectively kill those #ucks ripping us off for each and every map update.
What premium nav apps have a lot more features?
awesome…. now i can find gas stations easier, maybe…
for now though, caching is good enough.
this would help save battery if you want to turn off celular connections though. which is a plus, AND if people do that, then there will be less cellphone talkers on the road.
This would be fantastic. Looking forward to it.
Offline nav is now a reality for Google Maps.
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-news/android-google-maps-takes-users-offline/3186