Find yourself lost at a mall or at O’Hare Airport? A new feature coming to Google Maps should fix that.
The tech giant has announced several features coming soon to its Maps platform. Among them is an augmented reality feature to help find your way inside a mall or airport.
Google Maps’ Live View feature already is available for outdoor locations, using billions of Street View images to determine where you’re located and help you toward your destination.
The company says an indoor version of Live View will perform the same function. For example, if you’re lost at the airport, Live View will guide you toward a nearby escalator or elevator to assist, with signs and arrows in augmented reality pointing to the right direction.
The feature is currently available for some malls in cities including Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle, with plan for rollouts in more cities soon.
Google Maps also will include information about weather and air quality that you might, for instance, use to prepare for a trip.
Other features coming soon to Google Maps:
- Google will place more emphasis on eco-friendly routes. Users will be presented with a default route that would mean leaving the lowest carbon footprint and taking approximately the same estimated time as the fastest route. Maps also will alert you to low-emission zones at a destination.
- Users can soon schedule curbside pickup of groceries on Maps. It will work with partners including Instacart, Safeway and Albertsons. The company is also testing a pilot program with Fred Meyer in Portland, Oregon, in which users can add a planned grocery pickup to Maps and be notified when it’s time to head there.
Read more at USA Today.
