In 2022 Google presented what the future of Google Maps would be like, an immersive and intuitive map for us to explore in a more realistic way, with more sustainable decisions.
Today they have released more details on this topic, with updates to the immersive view and Live View, along with new features for drivers of electric vehicles, bicycles or those who walk or travel on public transport.
The immersive view of Google Maps
It is the most surprising of the novelties shown, although at the moment it will only be in London, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Tokyo, with Amsterdam, Dublin, Florence and Venice ready for the coming months.
It uses AI and computer vision, merging billions of Street View photos and aerial imagery to create a rich digital model of the world. It adds useful information about the weather, traffic and how busy a place is, from virtually flying over a building to seeing how a street changes throughout the day or exploring nearby restaurants.
To achieve this, they use an advanced artificial intelligence technique that transforms ordinary images into 3D representations, thus making it possible to recreate the entire context of a place, including its lighting, the texture of the materials and what is in the background.
Augmented reality indoors and outdoors
Another novelty presented is the ability to use AR to see ATMs, restaurants, parks and transit stations just by picking up your mobile. We will know when a place is open, if it is busy at the moment and what rating it has on Google.
It will be available in London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, San Francisco and Tokyo, and they have it almost ready for Barcelona, ​​Dublin and Madrid.
Surely you are already used to arrows powered by AR to indicate the right direction to find places inside an airport, because now they will take that technology to 1000 new airports, train stations and shopping centers in Barcelona, ​​Berlin, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Melbourne, Paris, Prague, São Paulo, Singapore, Sydney and Taipei in the coming months.
A more sustainable world
And for EV owners, they’ve added charging stops to shorter trips, a filter to find very fast charging stations, and charging stations in search results.
They are also working on indications visible while we navigate, with data that was previously only visible when unlocking the phone, opening the application and using the integral navigation mode.
