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It’s hard to imagine a time when we didn’t have instant access to Google Maps on the go, but it’s easy to forget that it’s not perfect. That’s why we’re looking forward to this latest update.
Google Maps now offers a lot more street detail to better represent what the streets look like in real life and makes getting around easier. The downside is that it’s currently only available in four locations: New York City, San Francisco, Central London, and Central Tokyo.
These features were first announced last year, with some details that were routed to the beta of Google Maps in early December. Back then, details only included smaller things like crosswalks and traffic lights, while today Google has added a lot more useful things like roadside vegetation, shapes more precise roads, pedestrian islands and other smaller features.
But the benefits don’t stop at mere visual cues, as these features also come with additional accessibility information. Access to wheelchairs and strollers is also indicated on the maps, as are obstacles such as stairs.
In other words, for a pedestrian navigating through these four cities, whatever your situation, you now have a lot more useful information to get around easily and efficiently.
It should be mentioned that all of these details are not universally available at the moment. London and Tokyo show no traffic lights, for example. No doubt this is due to the fact that Google does not have enough information at the time of writing, in the same way that the whole update is limited to a small handful of cities.
The update relies on Google collecting relevant information from each city. So their size means you can’t expect these details to be available everywhere at the same time.
But if you are in these four cities, it will all be incredibly useful to have on your phone screen. The more you know about your surroundings, the less stress you will have when navigating an area you do not know at all.
The best part is that this is a server side update, which means you don’t have to do anything. Just load the version of Google Maps you want to use and all the news will already be there.
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