Curbside Pickup, Energy Savings, Weather Factor Into Google Maps Updates

Google Maps is getting a refresh this year, with upgrades to location capability, weather and routing models, blogged Dane Glasgow, Google Maps vice president-product. Google Maps is using AI to improve indoor navigation for walking, said Glasgow Tuesday.

The app’s Live View feature is coming to indoor places that are tricky to navigate, including airports, transit stations and malls. Indoor navigation will be enabled by global localization, which uses AI to scan “tens of billions” of Google Street View images to determine a user’s orientation, Glasgow said. New advances “help us understand the precise altitude and placement of objects inside a building,” useful for finding the nearest elevator or escalator, gate, platform, baggage claim, ticket office, restroom or ATM, he said.

In a mall, users will be able to use Live View to see which floor a store is on and how to get there. Indoor Live View is available on Android and iOS apps for select malls in Chicago, Los Angeles, Newark, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle and Long Island, New York. It will start rolling out in coming months to airports, malls and transit stations in Tokyo and Zurich, with more cities on the way, he said.

A new weather layer in Google Map will show current and forecasted temperature and weather conditions for an area using data from The Weather Co., AirNow.gov and the Central Pollution Board. The weather layer will be available globally; the air quality layer will launch in Australia, India and the U.S. in coming months, Glasgow said.

A new shopping feature will integrate stores’ delivery and curbside pickup information into their business profiles on Maps and Google Search, including delivery providers, pickup and delivery windows, fees and order minimums, Glasgow said. The feature is rolling out first on mobile search for Instacart and Albertsons stores in the U.S.; it will be integrated with Maps later, he said.

In a pilot program with Kroger’s Fred Meyer stores in Portland, Oregon, users who place an order for pickup on the store’s app will be able to add it to Maps. Google will then notify customers when it’s time to leave and let them share their arrival time with the store. That time is continuously updated, based on location and traffic, he said, so the store can have the order ready upon arrival. “Check in on the Google Maps app, and they’ll bring your order right out for a seamless, fast, no-contact pickup,” he said.

Using data from the U.S. Department of Energy National Renewable Energy Lab, Google updated the routing model in Maps to optimize for lower fuel consumption, accounting for road incline, traffic congestion and other factors, Glasgow said. “Soon,” the mapping app will default to the route with the lowest carbon footprint when it has about the same estimated arrival time as the fastest route, he said. The feature, which will launch on Android and iOS apps this year, can be overridden in settings.

Glasgow said Google is working on alerts to inform drivers when they will be navigating through low-emission zones, established by cities around the world to restrict polluting vehicles such as certain diesel cars. Drivers will be able to choose an alternate route or mode of transportation when low-emission zone alerts launch in June in Germany, the Netherlands, France, Spain, and the U.K. on Android and iOS.

A coming feature will give drivers a view of all routes and transportation modes available to their destination so they can compare how long it will take to get there by car, transit or bike without toggling between tabs. The app will automatically prioritize preferred modes and boost those popular in a given location. “If you live in a city like New York, London, Tokyo, or Buenos Aires where taking the subway is popular, we’ll rank that mode higher,” said Glasgow.