[chris_wot]

There are also one too many buttons when you choose a route. If I want to drive, then I type in the address, select it, press a button to activate it, then press a similar button to start the route.

Why is that last button needed?

[neilc]

Personally I like this UX. I often pullup the directions to a destination without actually starting turn-by-turn navigation: I'd like to see whether Google recommends taking highway X or Y, and then I can drive the rest of the route myself.

[majewsky]

Exactly. Just yesterday, I used it to get an accurate reading of the driving distance between two cities.