Two decades ago, Google co-founder Larry Page had an idea that would forever change the way we navigate the world.

“Larry drove down some of these streets with a video camera and handed it to someone and said, ‘Hey, what can you do with this?'” said Maria Biggs, technical program manager at Google Street View, a prominent feature in Google Maps.

In a car equipped with the latest Street View camera, Biggs took CNBC on a ride near Google’s Silicon Valley headquarters. First introduced in 2022, it’s the first camera model that can be added onto any car, rather than being built into the vehicle.

“We’re going to Hawaii with these next generation camera systems because we don’t have to ship the whole car,” Biggs said. “We can just put the camera system in a box and ship it there and then rent the car when we’re there.”

Biggs said the new technology will allow Google to update data on some places for the first time in 10 years.

“We’re going to be able to easily move these cameras around and have more freshness in our maps,” she said.

With more than 2 billion monthly users, Google Maps is the world’s top navigation app. As Maps approaches its 20th anniversary in February, Google is working hard to keep that lead, with the help of the new cameras, as well as generative artificial intelligence.

The more nimble cameras are allowing Google to make updates to dozens of countries. It’s also mapping at least three new ones — Bosnia and Herzegovina, Namibia, and Liechtenstein. Street View cameras are a significant part of how Google gathers data for Maps, but it also relies on satellite and aerial images, and information from more than 1,000 third-party sources, such as local governments and users. That mass data collection system allows Google to offer maps in more than 250 countries and territories. 

Gemini is also enabling voice-activated reports in Waze, which Google bought in 2013 for $1.3 billion. That data gets fed into Google Maps to help alert drivers on both apps about hazards in real time.

“We hope that our products are helping people navigate more confidently and safely,” said Chris Phillips, vice president and general manager of Google Geo, the division that runs Maps. He said Waze is also helping improve safety on roadways by “letting people know a particular street has had issues in the past, and we’ve seen a noticeable change in people’s behaviors when they’re driving down those streets.”

Waze is also known for offering alternate routes.

“We’ll give you some more provocative maneuvers along the way,” Phillips said, when it comes to “beating the traffic and getting around.”

But alternate routes have also worsened traffic in some neighborhoods, where small roads can be ill equipped to handle many cars.

Phillips said Google only uses public roads and works with the local authorities to adhere to rules for specific streets.

“The use of these navigation apps, whether embedded or on smartphone devices, is almost universal,” said James Hodgson, who covers automotive for ABI Research.

Hodgson said that one problem currently is that the technology is targeted on a user-by-user basis. To improve efficiency, he said, “we are approaching a point where there needs to be a broader, almost fleet-level view.”

A major “perception barrier” Google has faced, Hodgson said, is around data privacy.

Identifying information like faces and license plates are blurred on Google Maps, and users can request blurring an area on Street View to prevent a risk like thieves analyzing their property. 

Users can also turn off location history or delete places they’ve been. Certain places like abortion clinics or domestic violence shelters are auto-deleted. In December, Google started keeping location history on devices instead of in the cloud, making it tougher for authorities to access location history.

How much Google spends, and makes, on Maps is shrouded in secrecy. Parent company Alphabet doesn’t break out Maps in its earnings reports, clumping it in with other services like Search and YouTube. One of the only estimates comes from a 2019 Morgan Stanley report forecasting Maps would go from $2.95 billion in revenue in 2019 to $11 billion in 2023.

The revenue is largely built on a model that Google knows well: advertising.

“We’re always focused on giving people the result, when they’re searching for a restaurant or a place, that most accurately fits what they’re searching for, ” Phillips said. “And merchants have the opportunity to actually pay for advertising in order for their place to show up in that list.”

Google also makes money by selling a software interface with detailed data to solar companies looking for new customers. It has highly accurate rooftop images, measurements, elevation and shading for some 480 million buildings across 40 countries.

Google sells access to its Maps Platform to companies including Wayfair and Dominos. Developers have used it to build more than 10 million sites and apps for things like food delivery, ridesharing and real estate. For example, in 2019, Uber said it paid Google $58 million for its mapping technology over the previous three years.

Google’s Android Automotive operating system, with Maps, also makes money. It powers the infotainment systems in many cars from Polestar, Volvo, Honda, GM and Ford.

As robotaxis go mainstream, accurate mapping is crucial, and a big opportunity for Google.

Alphabet-owned Waymo dominated the U.S. robotaxi market in 2024, and passengers in Phoenix can hail one of the fully autonomous cars directly from the Google Maps app. Robotaxis also present the potential for a virtuous cycle.

“I think an ambition for Waymo, and something that we see from almost every other autonomous vehicle platform provider, is to try to close that loop and to use the same vehicles that benefit from the map to also contribute to the creation of that map,” Hodgson said. “That is the future of where mapping is going for autonomous driving.”

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