A team of psychologists, social scientists, philosophers and evolutionary researchers affiliated with multiple institutions in the U.S. has found evidence suggesting that the slight advantage males have in navigation ability is likely due to differences in the ways male and female children are raised.
In their paper published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, the group describes how they studied navigational skills in multiple species to find out if there might be an evolutionary basis for one gender or the other having better skills.
I believe street names are part of the “male method”, so Google Maps uses that method.
If it said “Turn right at the intersection with the big police station”, then it’d be the “landmark method”.
I mean, landmarks don’t make much sense to use on a 2D, birds eye view map
It could with businesses. Turn left past the McDonalds. Keep going until you pass the empty plot on your right, etc.