Over one hundred new products arriving during the year on Google Maps, the Big G platform that moves the world, on which users upload 20 million contributions every day and which is now used by over a billion people. The main ones are really delicious because they pass from sustainability, air quality, navigation even inside large indoor spaces where you get lost on a par with that outside (just think of a gigantic train station or an airport) and to the collection of shopping and takeaway orders, which has become an increasingly essential purchasing channel in times of pandemics. Let’s see them in order.
Navigating indoors
These are improvements to a platform that seems to have been with us forever but is just 16, he explains Dane Glasgow, vice president of product at Google, in an official blog post. And they are mainly linked to artificial intelligence solutions that allow users to “have access to even more accurate and up-to-date information about the world” when they need it most. The first is the ability to navigate indoors with Live View, the augmented reality guide that with arrows and directions takes us by the hand, via the smartphone, sending us in the right direction. Powered by a technology called “global localization”, which uses AI to scan tens of billions of Street View images and understand our orientation, it will now also allow us to navigate within airports, transit stations and shopping malls. Finding the gate, the closest escalators, the right track or the ticket office will therefore be easier by viewing the context around you with Live View. Available on Android and iOS in select shopping malls in Chicago, Long Island, Los Angeles, Newark, San Francisco, San Jose and Seattle, it will arrive at select locations in Tokyo and Zurich later this year and in many other major cities later this year.
Weather forecast and air quality
The indications on the weather and above all on air quality thanks to the new partnerships with The Weather Company, AirNow.gov and the Central Pollution Board. More detailed weather information will be available globally while air quality information will initially be provided in Australia, India and the United States and will be made available in other countries as well. Always, of course, on Google Maps for Android and Apple.
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Sustainable paths
However, one of the most intriguing innovations is the one that aims at sustainability, designed together with National Renewable Energy Laboratory US (and which obviously will have to expand to other collaborations around the world). It is a new model for travel based on the analysis of numerous factors that characterize the itinerary such as the inclination of the road and traffic congestion which allows to consume less fuel. In essence, Google Maps will tell you not only which is the fastest route but, together with the other alternatives, it will also indicate to the user the route that produces the least environmental impact. This is if the estimated arrival time is the same as the faster solution. Otherwise, that is, in cases where the more sustainable route significantly increases the estimated arrival time, the platform will allow you to compare the CO2 impact of both routes so that the choice is consciously in the hands of the user. Obviously everything will always remain customizable from the settings. As always, it will start from the United States on Android and iOS over the course of the year and then expand globally.
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Similarly, Google Maps will give us a hand to orient ourselves in restricted traffic areas, or in low-emission areas where certain vehicles with polluting engines (just think of the Rome railway ring) cannot circulate, showing new alerts to help drivers not to get in the way (and maybe get a fine). The feature will launch next June in Germany, the Netherlands, France, Spain and the UK on Android and iOS, and soon in other countries as well.
“But we are aware that traveling in a sustainable way is not just a driving theme – explains Dane Glasgow – for this reason we are introducing a new interface for driving directions that allows you to choose more sustainable options when you move”. What does it mean? That when you set up an itinerary you will have a complete view of all the routes and means of transport, so that you can compare them more simply without having to jump from one tab to another as happens at this moment. And the app, learning from our use, will automatically give priority to the means we prefer or with which we usually move, also promoting the most used ones in our city. Do you love two wheels? Well, you will be shown more cycle routes by default. Everything will be made available all over the world in the coming months both for both the most popular operating systems.
Home delivery and collection
Home delivery and collection in a local or supermarket have become for a long time, and in Italy they are still the only way to order a meal in these weeks as far as bars and restaurants are concerned. Google Maps tries to enrich the experience in this area as well, adding useful information to purchases on the profiles of activities on Maps and Search. What does it mean? That, for example, for each business the system will indicate which are their suppliers for the home delivery service, i.e. if they are affiliated with a food delivery platform or another, the time frame available for collection and delivery , rates and minimum orders. Unsurprisingly, first steps in the US with the partners Instacart and Albertsons Cos.
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The pilot project starting next summer, also in the USA, with the American supermarket chain Fred Meyer, part of The Kroger Co., is curious to understand what could soon happen in Europe too: in some selected stores in Portland, Oregon, the withdrawal of the shopping will be more and more personalized. After confirming an order to be collected on the store app, it will in fact be possible to add it on Maps just like adding a call on the Calendar. The app will send a notification when it’s time to go to the store and at the same time the merchant will know the exact time of arrival, continuously updating it based on your location and traffic. Once there, just check-in on the Google Maps app and the order will be taken outside for a contactless collection.
“All these updates are possible thanks to the advances in the field of AI that have transformed Google Maps into a map capable of reflecting the millions of changes to which the world is subject every day, in the largest cities as in the smallest countries” closes Glasgow.
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