Google Maps is finally getting tools to avoid low bridges

Google Maps is fantastic at getting you where you want to go, and works so well in regular cases that we rarely give its routing a second thought. But not everyone’s case is a regular one, and what are you supposed to do if the vehicle you’re behind the wheel of has some kind of special restriction that might prevent it from traveling on just any road? Right now, Maps isn’t well equipped to handle that, and if you head out in an extra-tall or extra-long vehicle without doing your due diligence first, you could end up having a bad time, to put it mildly. Thankfully, change is finally happening, and Maps is beginning to pick up new tools for handling routes for larger vehicles.

Ahead of this season’s holiday travels, Google is announcing a trailer-friendly routing option for Google Maps built-in on select vehicles. Drivers will be able to enter the length, width, height, and weight of the loads, and be able to drive confidently, knowing that Maps isn’t about to steer them towards a bridge or a tunnel that’s going to be too small to fit through.

For anyone who’s ever rented a U-Haul only to realize last minute that Maps isn’t taking their vehicle’s height into account, this sounds like a big win — if it were widely available. Right now, Google shares that this works with Maps built-in on the 2024 Chevy Tahoe, Chevy Suburban, and GMC Yukon, with plans to bring it to more vehicles at some point in the future.

What about regular-old Maps on your phone? Or when connecting to your vehicle with Android Auto? Right now, we just don’t know, as Google has only explicitly mentioned its plans for the vehicles above. We’ve reached out to the company in the hopes of learning about just the kind of expansion, but we wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some kind of liability concern that’s holding Google back from deploying this everywhere. In any case, we’ll update this post with anything we manage to learn.