Assessment and validation of non-GPS Google Maps supplementary text-to-speech artefacts on Android and iOS devices

ABSTRACT This study explores the forensic potential of non-GPS Text-to-Speech (TTS) audio prompts generated by Google Maps on Android and iOS devices. These navigation prompts may serve as supplementary digital artefacts in investigations where conventional GPS data is unavailable. Real-world driving scenarios were simulated to collect TTS audio files and corresponding GPS screenshots, enabling comparison between prompted and actual distances. Deviation was highest at short ranges (50m), with errors up to 50%, but decreased and stabilised beyond 100m, where average percentage deviations fell below 20% for both platforms. Analysis of 18 test trips revealed platform-specific differences: Android produced a larger and more consistent dataset, supporting detailed trip reconstruction, while iOS was limited by inconsistent file storage and fewer usable prompts. These findings highlight the viability of TTS data as a forensic resource, with sequential prompts offering potential for approximate speed estimation.