As with everything Google lately, ai capabilities are coming to Maps. The company announced a series of machine learning updates for the popular app on Thursday, including a "Immersive view" for route planning, deeper Lens integration for local navigation and more accurate real-time information.
In May, at its I/O developer conference, Google executives debuted Immersive view for routes, which provides navigation photos of the planned route. Whether you’re walking, cycling, taking public transportation or driving, this will allow you to move back and forth across the street level, with turn-by-turn images of the path you’re taking. The feature arrives on iOS and Android this week for Amsterdam, Barcelona, Dublin, Florence, Las Vegas, London, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Paris, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Tokyo and Venice.
Just because you can see the route to your destination does not guarantee that you can read the signs along the way. Google is revamping its current ai-powered search feature with live view in Maps. Simply tap the Lens icon in Maps and shake your phone, the system will determine your precise street-level location and can direct you to nearby resources such as ATMs, transit stations, restaurants, cafes and stores.
The map itself will receive a significant improvement. Buildings along your route will be more accurately represented within the app to help you better orient yourself in unfamiliar cities, lane details along complicated highway junctions will also be more clearly defined in the app. Those updates will reach users in a dozen countries, including the US, Canada, France and Germany, over the next few months. US users will also start to see better HOV lane designations in the app and European customers should expect a significant expansion of ai-and-imagery-keep-speed-limits-on-google-maps-updated/”>Google’s ai speed limit sign reading technology to 20 nations in total.
Google Maps also runs natively on a growing number of electric vehicles, as part of the Android Automotive operating system ecosystem. Maps will also be updated as part of the new Places API. Starting this week, drivers will see more information about nearby charging stations, including whether the plugs work with their electric vehicle, the charger’s power output, and whether the plug has been used recently, an indirect means of inferring whether the station is off or not. The type of service, which Google helpfully points out, is the case for about 25 percent of them.
Even search is getting better with the new update. Users will soon be able to search for nearby destinations that meet more esoteric criteria, such as “animal latte art” or “pumpkin patch with my dog,” the results of which come from analysis of "billions of photos shared by the Google Maps community," according to a Google blog post on Thursday.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-maps-update-ai-immersive-view-search-ev-charger-location-130015451.html?src=rss