Tomorrow’s Tech Treepowered by Astra

Navigation & Timekeeping · Recorded milestone

Free turn-by-turn on phones

Recorded year2009

Google Maps Navigation gives free spoken directions on Android phones, quickly replacing dashboard sat-navs.

Explore this milestone on the interactive map

Built on

SmartphoneRecorded · 1994enables
Portable sat-navRecorded · 1998enables
Full-accuracy civilian GPSRecorded · 2000enables
Draggable web mapRecorded · 2005enables

Led to

Ride-hailing appsRecorded · 2010enables
Centimetre positioning from 6GForecast · ~2032enables

Sources & evidence

Additional source

Dataset updated 2026-10-18. This individual record has not been separately re-reviewed.