Google Maps gets AR indoor navigation, new green route options

Google Maps has announced a slew of new features to come, ranging from on-map weather updates to AR-powered indoor navigation. There’s a lot to cover, and the company says it’s on track to deliver “over 100 AI-based improvements to Google Maps” this year.

First of all, there is a new user interface for directions. Today, the steering UI uses tabs for each type of transportation: one for driving, then transit, walking, carpooling, and cycling. In this redesign everything appears in a flat list, but now you can press the “options” button and set the preferred modes of transport. You can prioritize route options for driving, walking, trains, buses, motorcycles, bicycles, carpooling, “bikes and scooters” and ferries. You can even choose multiple items, so all your top picks will be the first in the list.

Some of the route options will have a little green leaf next to them, which is part of Google Maps’ new focus on promoting cleaner modes of transportation. For driving, the Google Maps routing screen will soon take fuel consumption into account, and you’ll start to see a green leaf next to fuel efficient routes as well. For many places, the shorter route is the most fuel efficient, so not much will change. But Google Maps will calculate things like traffic, starts and stops, and road elevation (a major concern in Google’s California backyard) to find a CO₂ note for each trip. If it finds a more fuel efficient but longer route, it will notify you, and if both routes take the same time, the fuel efficiency will be used as the starting point for the default route.

Google says both features will be released this year.

Google Maps takes the weather

There are two new layers coming to Google Maps that put the service in competition with your favorite weather app: air quality and weather layers. The weather is almost always something you should look at before traveling, and you will soon be able to get that information straight from Google Maps. For people with allergies or people living in places where air quality is a regular issue, it will also be helpful to see this information easily.

Google says, “Data from partners like The Weather Company, AirNow.gov and the Central Pollution Board is fueling these layers which are starting to roll out to Android and iOS in the coming months. The weather layer will be available worldwide and the Air Quality Layer will be launching in Australia, India and the United States, with more countries to come. “

At present, the presentation of this information is very limited. The most obvious way to display weather and air quality data is to use an overlay showing rain and air in a radar view, with varying colors indicating intensity. Google Maps only displays this data as small, random dots on the map, in the same way points of interest are displayed. This makes it difficult to determine where the rain starts and stops, how long it will stay, if it will get better or worse in the next few hours, or how bad the weather will be while you are driving there. Adding this information directly to Google Maps would likely shrink much of the weather app industry, as data overlaid on Google Maps is a critical feature, but maybe Google is more receptive to a premier weather solution. plan now in which Apple is investing the area with its acquisition of Dark Sky.

Inland AR navigation

Google Maps AR Navigation moves indoors. The feature was rolled out to iPhone and Android devices in select cities in 2019 and uses AR Core-based 3D detection and Google’s treasure trove of street view images to determine your direction through the camera and what it’s on. is pointed. On the outside, the feature ended up being the world’s most complicated replacement for a compass, but compasses in phones (especially Android phones) just aren’t as accurate and are prone to interference, so getting the correct initial direction of travel using only a compass can be a challenge. AR Navigation, in addition to the great 3D graphics overlaid on a camera, is really a big help.

Looks like AR navigation is really going to shine when it switches to inland navigation. Google demonstrated the feature in an airport terminal, where it can do things like determine your location (GPS doesn’t work inside) and identify which floor you’re on. In the demo, he tells someone where the escalator is and to go down one level to reach their terminal. Google says it wants to deploy this technology in “airports, transit stations and shopping centers” where it can “help you find the nearest elevator and escalators, your door, your platform, the retrieval. baggage, check-in counters, your ticket office, restrooms, ATMs and more. “

Indoor navigation has been something that Google has continually tried to get businesses to embrace, offering solutions like Wi-Fi RTT (Wi-Fi Based Positioning) which has been built into Android 9. I think the company has realized that any method that requires independent companies to install and maintain some kind of technical infrastructure will not work. AR Navigation appears to be a more scalable alternative as Google can do all of the work itself. It’s powered by nothing but your camera and a bunch of images stored on Google Maps – Google calls this VPS, or Visual Positioning System – and it’s basically AI-powered cue navigation.

VPS data is the same as Street View data, so it can be scaled the same way Street View is scaled, sending hordes of entrepreneurs from around the world to photograph everything with a special equipment. You might argue that photographing all of the large indoor public spaces is too much work, but Google has already proven that it can do it with Street View. The company now professionally manufactures its own Street View backpacks, so sending a fast-walking entrepreneur to your local airport, train station, or mall should be enough for VPS data. “Just photograph the whole world” is entirely within Google’s reach.

Google calls the feature “Indoor Live View” and says it “is now available on Android and iOS at a number of malls in Chicago, Long Island, Los Angeles, Newark, San Francisco, San Jose and Seattle. the coming months at select airports, malls and transit stations in Tokyo and Zurich, with more cities on the way. “

Now if we could just get this in an AR version of Google Glass that would be great.