Google launched a slew of new features and improvements for its mapping service in India on Tuesday, capping out the year and laying the groundwork for the following year.
One of the most recent improvements is Lens in Maps, which will be available in 15 locations throughout India by January, beginning with Android. When people point their smartphone camera down the street to a restaurant or cafe, the feature, which was launched in the United States and some global markets in October, provides information such as opening hours, ratings, reviews, and photos.
In addition, Google has released Live View walking navigation in India, which provides arrows, directions, and distance markers overlayed on the Maps screen, allowing users to simply get to their destination. Google said that the functionality will first be accessible on Android and will be handed out to over 3,000 cities and municipalities throughout the nation.
“India is a massive, massive country with so many diverse needs,” said Miriam Karthika, Vice President of Google Maps Experience, during the event. “The scale at which we have to operate for India is very vast.”
Google announced Address Descriptors, which use a combination of machine learning signals to offer up to five most relevant landmarks and area names around pinned addresses and display landmark references when a user shares their location, in addition to visual and immersive viewing experiences through Lens in Maps and Live View walking navigation. This India-first functionality, which was announced earlier this year for developers on the Google Maps Platform, would be accessible in over 75 Indian cities.
Google has also expanded its fuel-efficient routing to India, where customers will be able to use it beginning in January. The function will be available on both four-wheelers and two-wheelers across the nation, assisting users in reducing fuel usage and limiting carbon emissions. Along with customers in India, customers in Indonesia will be able to use the service next year.
Google claims that from its original deployment in October 2021 and up to September of this year, fuel-efficient routing has helped save more than 2.4 million metric tons of CO2e emissions worldwide. According to the business, the function utilizes AI to comprehend real-time traffic data, road elevation, and the engine type of the car to select the route that saves fuel and emissions.
In addition to offering global capabilities in India, Google collaborated with India’s Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) and mobility app Namma Yatri to deliver metro schedules and reservations directly via Google Maps. The experience will be accessible in Kochi by the middle of next year and will spread to additional metros as they join the open e-commerce network.
Additionally, Google has expanded its Where Is My Train app, which over 80 million people use each month to manage their interstate train rides, to include local trains in Mumbai and Kolkata, with more cities to follow.
Google has already mapped millions of kilometers of roads and 300 million structures throughout the nation. Over 50 million daily Maps queries, 2.5 billion kilometers of directions every day, and more than 60 million unique users in the nation contribute to Maps. Furthermore, Google said that it has added 30 million companies and locations to Maps throughout the nation, allowing 900 million direct merchant-to-consumer interactions.
Google Street View was reintroduced in India in July of last year, six years after the capability was prohibited due to security concerns. The firm collaborated with local companies Genesys and Tech Mahindra. According to Google, nearly 50 million people in the nation are now seeing Street View.
