This guy is kind of weird in front of a camera. Seems really rehearsed. I’d rather have employees do this stuff, though, than paid actors.
I wish for “search along route” almost every time I use my Garmin. Voice search will be neato, as will augmenting the interface with streetview photos. I’m skeptical about the “museum with the king tut exhibit” search.
Garmin/Tomtom stock plummets
They (existing automotive GPS manufacturers) have to have seen this coming. A few months ago I bought a new GPS because it was cheaper than buying new maps for my old one. (Nuvi 255 replacing a 200, I think) The interface is reskinned and slightly faster, but there are no conspicuous new features. Charging so much for map updates and not innovating much, they kind of asked for this.
At least for Garmin, in-car navigation is only one of their markets. It’s probably their largest, but they won’t go out of business if they lose this it - they’ll fall back on aircraft, boat, hiking, and athletic GPS products. Another interesting market is in-dash GPS for new cars.. I don’t think google will be very interested in this unless there is some way to guarantee a cellular data connection.
