traffic forecast, travel history, the application is full of new features

In a new update, Google is getting several new features. As part of compliance with health measures, the Mountain View firm proposes to anticipate peak hours in transport to apply social distancing as much as possible. It is also possible to rate the restaurants in a more exhaustive way and to follow its activity with precision.

Google Maps has been used to assess the state of traffic on roads around the world for some time now. This feature has undergone several improvements over time, all aimed at simplify the user’s life and guarantee their safety, such as displaying a route where there is the least need to brake. But this is primarily intended for motorists, which is far from all city dwellers. On the contrary, the latter tend to use public transportation.

However, in the light of the health risks presented by COVID-19, it is better to move away from closed places with high crowds. Thus, at the end of 2020, Google Maps began to assess the occupancy of public transport live to avoid crowded buses and subways. Initially limited to 200 cities around the world, this functionality will now deploy in a hundred countries via 10,000 transit agencies. From now on, it will be easier to find a seat on your daily journeys.

Google Maps allows you to export your travel history

This is not the only measure taken by Google to help its users avoid the coronavirus. As of today, the manufacturer is testing the display of the influx of people in the streets from New York and Sidney. This feature is expected to be rolled out to other cities around the world soon. She will join others in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, such as the addition of vaccination centers on the map.

Maps also gets two new tabs on Android. The first, titled Insights, appears in the Timeline if location history is enabled. This last poster travel data, by calculating the time spent in transport or the distance traveled with each means of locomotion. The second, called Trips, summarizes each of the places visited by the user and allows to export it.

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Finally, Google added several restaurant rating options. Users can now mention the price of the menus, the availability rate of the dishes or if they have been consumed on the spot or to take away. These options are currently only available in the United States, but should land soon internationally.

Source: Google