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With all the hype around Google’s big announcement yesterday that they would be providing Android devices with free turn-by-turn directions, you’d think stand alone GPS companies should call it a day and pack up the office.  But we are missing something: nowhere does Google say anything about spoken turn-by-turn directions.

Turn left in 1.3 miles

One of the best features in a GPS navigation system, in my book at least, is audible instructions so I don’t have to take my eyes off the road.  TeleNav, which I use, even speaks the road names I should be turning on to.  How can a GPS navigation system be viable without spoken instructions?  Isn’t this traffic safety week or something?

Rerouting?

I’ve been thinking since the announcement that I must have overlooked it.  I twittered my question to bloggers and got no responses.  I combed Google’s Navigation site and watched videos.  The closest I came to any kind of confirmation was a mute button.  Not very convincing, right?

There is nothing better than connected GPS (IMO) and Google brings this.  I really dig the street view, another great thing Google brings.  But without spoken navigation instructions, what’s the point?  It will be just a step above the Google Maps route info on the iPhone.  At best, we can hope to get pulled over by all these no texting laws for this, at worst we take our eyes off the road and miss who knows what.  Surely Google isn’t trying to kill us, right?

I’ll continue searching.  If you find something on this, post it in the comments.  We’ll get to the bottom of this, hopefully before the phone launches.

Read: [Google Navigation]