Why Google Maps falls short on long trips
Google Maps is built for the next turn. Long trips need something it doesn't have: the trip itself as the thing being planned and driven. What convoy mode and multi-day planning have in common, and what would prove me wrong.
Views are my own, based on public information and my own use of Google Maps. I don't work at Google and have no inside knowledge of its plans.
The first two posts in this series proposed two features: convoy mode for groups driving together, and multi-day planning for trips that don't fit in one day. This post is about why both are needed, and why I think they're one idea rather than two.
Maps is built for the next turn
Google Maps is very good at the moment you're in. It knows the traffic ahead, the fastest route right now, and the next turn. For most trips, that's all you need.
Long trips are different. What matters is the whole journey: the plan made the week before, the limits you set, the people you're travelling with, and what happens when something changes on day two. Those are the moments when the trip matters most, and they're the moments when people leave Maps for WhatsApp, a spreadsheet or a separate planning app.
The data isn't the problem
Maps already has most of what long trips need. It has live traffic, places to stop, fuel and charging points, location sharing, offline maps, and routes with several stops. None of the proposals in this series needs a new source of data.
What's missing is the thing that connects them: the trip itself. Today a route is something Maps calculates and forgets. A trip would be something it keeps: the days, the stops, the deadlines, the people in other cars, and the plan as it changes.
Google has tried trip planning before
Google ran a separate trip-planning app, Google Trips, and shut it down in 2019. That's the strongest argument against this series, so it's worth taking seriously.
My reading is that planning and driving were kept apart. The plan lived in one app and the navigation in another, so the plan stopped being useful the moment the car started moving. Both proposals here do the opposite: the plan lives inside Maps, where the driving happens. Convoy mode is the plan shared with other cars. Multi-day planning is the plan adjusted as the trip goes on.
Five principles
These run through both proposals.
- The trip is the unitPlan, drive and share around the whole trip, not one route at a time.
- Never change the plan silentlyMaps flags problems and offers options. The person decides.
- Show uncertaintyAn estimated position, an assumed range or a distant forecast is labelled as such.
- Protect the driver's attentionDrivers get voice, at safe moments. Screens are for passengers and stops.
- Degrade honestlyWhen the signal drops, say what's known and what isn't, rather than show old data as current.
Why it's worth doing
Long trips are rare compared with daily driving, so these features won't move everyday usage much. Their value is in when they happen. A family trip or a group drive is a trip people remember, and it's where Maps currently hands them over to other apps. Earning trust on those trips is how a navigation app becomes the one people rely on.
What would prove me wrong
Each of these can be tested before building much: by watching how groups coordinate today, by measuring how many trips are long enough, and by checking how often a multi-stop route in Maps is saved and opened again later.
That's the series. If you plan or drive these trips and see it differently, I'd like to hear it.