Google on Tuesday introduced a range of new features and updates to its mapping services in India as it closes out the year and lays the foundation for next year.
The latest in a series of new features is Lens in Maps, which will be launched on Android in 15 cities across India by January. The feature was introduced in the U.S. and select global markets in October and uses a combination of artificial intelligence and augmented reality to show people information such as opening hours, ratings, reviews, and photos when they point their smartphone camera on the street. I will provide a. Go to a restaurant or cafe.
Google has also launched Live View Walking Navigation in India, providing overlays of arrows, directions, and distance markers on the map screen to help users navigate to their destinations easily. Google says the feature will initially be available on Android and will be rolled out to more than 3,000 cities and towns across the country.
“India is a huge country with very diverse needs,” Miriam Karthika, vice president of Google Maps Experience, said at the event. “The scale on which we have to operate for India is enormous.”
In addition to the visually immersive viewing experience with Lens in Maps and Live View walking navigation, Google uses a combination of machine learning signals to discover the most relevant lands around your pinned address. We announced an address descriptor that provides up to five mark and area names and displays landmark references. Users share their location information. This India-first feature was introduced for Google Maps Platform developers earlier this year and will be available across his 75+ cities in India.
Image credits: Google
Google is also bringing fuel-efficient directions to India, which will be available to users starting in January. This feature works on domestic four-wheelers and two-wheelers and helps users reduce fuel consumption and limit carbon emissions. The feature will be available to users in Indonesia in addition to India next year.
Since its initial launch in October 2021, through September this year, Google said its fuel-efficient directions had prevented more than 2.4 million tons of CO2e emissions worldwide. The company says the feature uses AI to understand real-time traffic data, road elevation, and vehicle engine type to identify routes that limit fuel and emissions.
Apart from launching global features in India, Google has partnered with India’s Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) and mobility app Namma Yatri to bring metro schedules and reservations directly to users through Google Maps. . The experience will be available from the Kochi metro by the middle of next year, and will be rolled out in stages as other metros come on board with the open e-commerce network.
Google is also expanding its Where Is My Train app, which helps more than 80 million users every month to navigate their intercity train journeys, to local trains in Mumbai and Kolkata, with plans to add more cities in the future. .
To date, Google has mapped millions of kilometers of roads and 300 million buildings across the country. More than 50 million searches are made every day on the domestic map, 2.5 billion kilometers of directions are recorded every day, and more than 60 million unique users contribute to the map. Additionally, Google said it has mapped 30 million businesses and locations across the country, enabling direct connections between 900 million merchants and consumers.
Last July, Google introduced the Street View feature in India, six years after it was banned due to security concerns. The company has partnered with local companies Genesis and Tech Mahindra. According to Google, more than 50 million users in Japan are currently viewing Street View.
Source: techcrunch.com
