For the holidays, Google wants to make life easier for Maps users. The company brings three major new features to its application, including a search for a fast charging station for its electric car.
Google is rolling out some welcome and long-awaited new features for its Maps application on smartphones at the start of the week. On the menu, more information on the accessibility of buildings, new filters for charging stations and the official arrival of the Live View search option.
Travel more efficiently
The end of year celebrations are approaching, many will take the road to visit family. The Google Maps mobile application has already implemented the taking into account of toll rates and the cost of fuel at the start of the last school year. From now on, it is the users of electric cars who will be able to benefit from more precise assistance for their journeys. The application adds new filters, including one to display only fast charging stations.
The map will then show only stations with chargers of at least 50kW. It is also possible to establish your route taking into account the type of socket used. The charging station search and real-time information function appeared on the app in the spring of 2019. Electric car users now have many small tools to help them make the most optimized journeys possible.
Live View and accessibility
Announced last September, Live View’s search feature is coming to the iOS and Android versions of Google Maps. Available only in certain major cities such as Paris, New York or Tokyo, Live View allows you to navigate the city using augmented reality. To use the feature, just click on the camera icon in the search bar on mobile. It is then possible to see, through the camera, information about the places that are in the field of vision: ratings, opinions, position, etc. It is even possible to search for a place to go and the application will indicate in which direction to go.
The “accessible places” function, deployed in 2020 in only four countries, is finally available everywhere in the world. It indicates whether the destination sought by the user is equipped with disabled access. If a location has access, a blue wheelchair icon appears on the result. Google specifies that, if the information is often provided by the managers and owners of the places, the functionality also relies on the contribution of the users themselves. They can indeed send information by clicking on “to propose” on the place concerned, then “Update this place”.
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