[greggman]

Japanese phones have had that feature since 2006 with first person 3d views. You see the buildings in 3d in first person. It's pretty easy to figure out where to go

http://blog.greggman.com/blog/cell_phones_keep_on_advancing/

I find it frustrating the pretty much all smartphone navigation systems are not as good as 10 year old Japanese car navigation systems. They show 3d views as you go, which lane you should be in, Warn you about lanes to avoid. They'll even show buildings and bridges translucently to portray in first person that you need to go around behind the building or pass the on ramp of an elevated freeway and then uturn under the freeway and back to the other side.

[akennberg]

Don't be frustrated. The challenge is not in building the app itself but getting very accurate data about the physical world. The density in Japan helps justify the costs required to collect this data.