Google Maps will be smarter and more useful with the newly added artificial intelligence tools. Google rolled out a major update for Maps on Thursday, adding a host of new features that make the app even more powerful. For example, the new Immersive View for Routes feature uses artificial intelligence to provide detailed previews of planned trips.
“Let’s say you want to bike across the water to the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco,” Google’s Chris Phillips wrote in a blog post outlining the new features. Request cycling directions, then tap the Immersive View preview to see your route from start to finish in a stunning, multi-dimensional view. With detailed, step-by-step visual directions, you can prepare for every turn as if you were there, and use the time slider to plan when to leave based on helpful information like simulated traffic and weather conditions. “This way, you can easily avoid driving in rainy weather or heavy traffic.”
Google CEO Sunar Pichai also drew attention to the new feature in his X post on Thursday. Pichai said, “Artificial intelligence makes it easier to explore and navigate with Google Maps. “Immersive View for Routes is coming to 15 cities and lets you preview every step of a walking, driving or cycling route in 3D,” he wrote. Pichai also added that the Lens in Maps feature will come to more than 50 new cities.
The cities Pichai mentioned coming to Immersive View for Routes include Amsterdam, Barcelona, Dublin, Florence, Las Vegas, London, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Paris, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Tokyo and Venice. .
Google also introduced Lens in Maps, a more advanced version of its existing Live View Search feature. The feature uses artificial intelligence and augmented reality to help users navigate when reaching a new destination. Users can do this by selecting the Lens icon in the search bar and lifting the handset to find information about amenities such as ATMs, stations, restaurants, cafes and shops.
The app also gets more detailed navigation maps for a smoother user experience, and for electric vehicle drivers “including whether a charger is compatible with their vehicle and whether available chargers are fast, medium, or slow to help you find the charging station that best meets your needs.” It does more by adding additional charging station information.
In addition to all this, the search function of Google Maps is also updated. According to the information provided by Chris Phillips, with this update, users will be offered “photo priority results” for certain searches. These results are based on analysis of billions of photos shared by the Google Maps community, all using artificial intelligence and advanced image recognition models. Users in France, Germany, Japan, the UK and the US will be able to experience the new Google Maps search feature starting this week.
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