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Google just turned Maps into a playable AI world simulator
20 May 2026

Google DeepMind has integrated its Project Genie with Street View, a move that promises to revolutionize the way we experience virtual environments.

The new feature was announced at the Google I/O 2026 developer conference.

With this integration, users can now explore real-world locations in an immersive and interactive manner, even adjusting factors like weather conditions or imagining future scenarios.

Street View data collection and Genie 3's capabilities
Versatility

Launched as a research preview in August 2025, Genie 3 is already being used by Waymo's simulator to prepare its self-driving cars for "exceedingly rare events" like tornadoes or casual elephant encounters.

The ultimate goal of this integration is to enhance educational experiences, gaming, and robotics training.

Google has been collecting Street View data for 20 years through cars with cameras and individuals wearing "tracker backpacks."

Waymo's self-driving cars and the potential for expansion
Expansion

Genie 3 is already powering one of Waymo's simulators to train its self-driving cars on "exceedingly rare events" like tornadoes or casual elephant encounters.

The addition of Street View data could help Waymo expand its operations in more cities worldwide.

Google is rolling out Street View access in Genie to select Ultra users in the US, with plans for a broader global rollout over the coming weeks.

Need for improvement in accuracy and physics-awareness
Development

Despite its impressive capabilities, the integration of Street View in Genie is still an experiment, according to Diego Rivas, a product manager at DeepMind.

He emphasized that there's still much room for improvement in terms of accuracy.

The current results are impressive but more akin to video game quality than photorealistic images.

The models also lack physics-awareness at this stage, meaning they don't yet understand cause-and-effect relationships in simulations.

Maps data and the future of AI research
Progress

Jonathan Herbert, director of Google Maps, said that Genie can't yet create a faithful reconstruction of a street. However, he emphasized the AI's spatial continuity as its real breakthrough.

This means if you turn 360 degrees, the AI correctly remembers and simulates the environment behind you.

Herbert also hinted at plans to use Maps Data in new ways for advanced AI research in the future.