When traveling by car, GPS navigation is one of the main tools to easily find your way. This technology, which uses satellites to geolocate your location, has been tested over the years and generally works well, except in places where it “doesn’t pick up” like in tunnels…

To solve this problem, GPS navigation apps built into smartphones or onboard connected cars now have a little trick: use Bluetooth technology manage geolocation in tunnels. After Waze, it was the turn Google maps to offer this feature to users of a popular mobile mapping and navigation application.

Google Maps: better positioning

But how does it work? In the absence of a GPS signal, the smartphone will use a Bluetooth connection to communicate with the child connected beaconswhich are called “beacons”: they work with Bluetooth Low Energy technology (BLE), a little-known solution, but one that has been around for more than 10 years.

In practice, these Bluetooth beacons emit signals that are picked up by smartphones and connected devices when you approach them. After that, your device will contact the beacon, which informs it about this position in the tunnel, within a few meters, but the beacon does not collect information about the smartphone. The navigation app can then continue to provide reliable instructions to guide motorists through the tunnel.

But be careful: this solution is not installed in all tunnels of the world! Indeed, Google Maps uses “Waze Beacons” installed by its subsidiary Waze in several major cities such as Boston, Brussels, Chicago, Mexico, New York, Oslo, Paris, Rio, Sydney, etc. In France La Défense tunnelnear Paris, equipped with no less than 400 Bluetooth beacons, making it easier to navigate this famous underground labyrinth.

So far only for Android

This feature has already been tested last fall in a beta version, is now available to all Google Maps users, but only on Android smartphones. Indeed, even though Apple was one of the first companies to use BLE technology with its “iBeacons”, iOS smartphones currently do not allow this use of Bluetooth.

To continue to enjoy the benefits of GPS navigation in tunnels, go to Google Maps settings, then “Navigation options”: in the “Traffic route options” section, activate the “Blue tunnel beacons” option. Then check the authorization to allow Google Maps to detect and communicate with the Bluetooth beacons in the tunnels.

Before getting behind the wheel, you should also ensure that your device’s Bluetooth is activated to avoid any dangerous maneuvers while driving.

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