Perplexity's Aravind Srinivas unveils Google Earth flight and drive simulator
Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas has dropped a cool new simulator that lets you fly planes or drive vehicles over real places, all powered by Google Earth and some clever AI coding.
You can cruise around famous landmarks like the Statue of Liberty or the Sydney Opera House, and thanks to "vibe coding," a significant portion of the development workflow is handled by prompts and AI coding tools.
React Vite CesiumJS Mapbox power simulator
The tech behind it uses React, Vite, CesiumJS, and Three.js for smooth 3-D visuals, plus Google's 3-D Map Tiles API and Mapbox for search and place selection.
Early users say flying feels pretty stable already, but driving could use a bit more polish, especially when it comes to movement and physics.
Overall, it's a promising look at how AI can make building interactive apps way easier (and maybe more fun) in the future.