Komsan Chiyadis
GrabFood delivery-partner, Thailand
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We’re making pickups easier with video guides in the Grab app
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November 5, 2025
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Regional
Finding your Grab driver at airports, malls, or major event venues can sometimes feel like navigating a maze. With multiple entrances, levels, and pickup zones, it’s easy for both drivers and passengers to get a little lost. To make this experience smoother, the Maps team has been experimenting with a new feature called Immersive Points of Interest (POI). These are short video guides that help users locate the right pickup points in complex areas.
Videos create a more intuitive user experience
When users book a ride and are heading out to meet their driver, they can now view video walkthroughs that guide them to the pickup-spot, directly in the app. These clips show exactly how to get from, say, an airport arrival gate to the designated Grab pickup zone—whether that means walking through a basement passage, taking an escalator or exiting via a specific door. The goal is simple: to make navigation more intuitive and reduce trip cancellations caused by location confusion.
We already supported step-by-step guides illustrated with still images for some locations, but found that videos can explain locations more clearly and intuitively. The maps team is now collecting feedback and data to understand how much these immersive visuals help our users.
POI profile pages on Grab
The immersive POI feature builds on Grab’s existing in-app POI profile pages. They display key information about certain pickup and drop-off points. In addition to airports and malls, these might include landmarks, hotels, museums, and so on.
These profile pages already include text and images. The addition of video marks a new step toward richer, more user-friendly navigation support.
The immersive video POIs first appeared around the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Singapore, where road closures and restricted access made pickup points especially tricky to find. Catering to passengers and our driver-partners during major events like these inspires us to innovate.
(Also read: Basement routing: How serving customers during F1 made us think outside the box)
After promising early results, the team began expanding the feature to airports across Grab’s operating countries, starting in Singapore—with more to follow by the end of the year.
While the feature is still experimental, it’s designed with scalability in mind. The videos are generated efficiently using existing visual data and AI tools that can stitch together static photos into an immersive walk-through video experience, minimising the need for manual video production. That means the team can quickly roll out video guides for more locations.
In the long run, Grab hopes that these immersive experiences will make every ride start more seamlessly. We want to give users confidence when they book a ride. They’ll know exactly where to meet their driver, without stress or second-guessing.
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Komsan Chiyadis
GrabFood delivery-partner, Thailand
COVID-19 has dealt an unprecedented blow to the tourism industry, affecting the livelihoods of millions of workers. One of them was Komsan, an assistant chef in a luxury hotel based in the Srinakarin area.
As the number of tourists at the hotel plunged, he decided to sign up as a GrabFood delivery-partner to earn an alternative income. Soon after, the hotel ceased operations.
Komsan has viewed this change through an optimistic lens, calling it the perfect opportunity for him to embark on a fresh journey after his previous job. Aside from GrabFood deliveries, he now also picks up GrabExpress jobs. It can get tiring, having to shuttle between different locations, but Komsan finds it exciting. And mostly, he’s glad to get his income back on track.
