Google on Tuesday unveiled a slew of new features and updates to its mapping service in India as it wraps up for the year and sets the stage for the year ahead.
One of the latest in a series of new additions is Lens in Maps, which will roll out to 15 cities across India by January, starting on Android. The feature, which launched in the US and some global markets in October, uses a mix of artificial intelligence and augmented reality to provide information such as hours of operation, ratings, reviews and photos when users point their smartphone camera on the way to a restaurant or a cafe.
Google has also launched Live View walking navigation in India to offer arrows, directions and distance markers overlaid on the Maps screen, helping users easily navigate to their destination. Google said the feature will initially be available on Android and will roll out to more than 3,000 cities and towns in the country.
“India is a huge, huge country with so many different needs,” Miriam Karthika, VP of Google Maps Experience, said at the event. “The scale at which we have to operate for India is very large.”
In addition to visual and immersive viewing experiences through Lens on Maps and Live View walking navigation, Google announced Address Descriptors that use a combination of machine learning signals to offer up to five more relevant landmarks and area names around pinned addresses and display landmark reports when the user shares their location. Introduced to developers on the Google Maps Platform earlier this year, this India-first feature will be available in over 75 cities in India.
Image Credits: Google
Google has also brought its budget launch to India, which will be available to users from January. The feature will work on four-wheelers and two-wheelers in the country to help users reduce fuel consumption and curb carbon emissions. Alongside India, the feature will be available to users in Indonesia next year.
Since its initial launch in October 2021 and through September of this year, Google said the economical route has helped prevent more than 2.4 million metric tons of CO2emissions worldwide. The company said the feature uses artificial intelligence to understand real-time traffic data, road elevation and vehicle engine type to identify the route that cuts fuel and emissions.
In addition to launching global features in India, Google has partnered with India’s Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) and mobility app Namma Yatri to provide metro schedules and bookings to users directly through Google Maps. The experience will be available starting with the Kochi metro by the middle of next year and other metros will follow as they come on the open e-commerce network.
Google has also expanded its Where Is My Train app, which brings together over 80 million users every month to navigate their long-distance train journeys, to cover Mumbai and Kolkata local trains, with more cities being added with over time.
So far, Google has mapped millions of kilometers of roads as well as 300 million buildings across the country. There are more than 50 million daily searches on Maps, 2.5 billion kilometers driven each day and more than 60 million unique users contributing to Maps in the country. Additionally, Google said it has placed 30 million businesses and places on the country’s Maps, enabling 900 million direct merchant-to-consumer connections.
In July last year, Google introduced Street View in India six years after it was banned from operating in the country due to security concerns. The company has partnered with local entities Genesys and Tech Mahindra. Today, more than 50 million users view Street View in the country, Google said.
