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Look , we ’ve all been there . You ’re on a road trip and you pull off the highway for some intellectual nourishment or fuel . And then Google Maps starts ( rudely ) hollo at you to get back on the road . The company has all the money and AI chips in the world and yet the app ca n’t justchillwhen you need to make a cavity plosive .
So when GoogleannouncedWednesday that it ’s adding two new feature of speech to Maps , a tiny part of my brainpower held out Bob Hope that this would be the daytime it would break up this conflict .
Alas , neither of the features Google announced is the ability to break navigation mid - head trip . The society is making it easy to report things like construction , lane law of closure and police presence . It ’s also go away to more manifestly spotlight the destination and even the building entrance and nearby parking lots , which should help with unfamiliar situation . Great !
Of of course , in a situation like the one I account above , one could pass away the navigation and start it back up after acquiring said food or fuel . In fact , this the precise answer I got from Google ’s own “ AI Overview ” as I was search for example of other mass begging the company to add a interruption mapping to the Maps app . One could also add the colliery closure as a “ waypoint ” to the head trip to stop the app from insistently re - routing — as issuggestedin the top result from Google ’s own accompaniment community . But that adds even more work and mental load for a soul who ’s already driving a car .
Google , when inquire by TechCrunch , pointed out that navigation will automatically pauseifyou have already added the stop as a “ waypoint ” to the trip . But if you make a blockage on a whimsey , the company similarly suggest cease the trip and resuming it once you ’re done with the roundabout way .
I know I ’m not alone here , aspeoplehavespentyearsasking Google for this feature . And to be middling , Apple Maps does not have this lineament either . Neither does the other top option , Waze , which Google also owns .
This is Silicon Valley , the land of incinerating money in overhaul of eliminating friction . The tech industry has helped convenience seep into every other facet of modern biography , so why is this exceptional object lesson of its absence give up to persist ?
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update with information from Google on other way to handle mid - trip stops .
