It’s hard to imagine a time when we didn’t have instant access to Google Maps to get around, 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 much more details about the streets to better represent the appearance of the streets in real life and makes it easier for you to get around. The downside is that it is currently only available in four places: New York, San Francisco, Central London and Central Tokyo.
These features were first announced last year, with some details coming to Google Maps Beta in early December. At that time, the details included only minor things, such as pedestrian crossings and traffic lights, while today Google has added many more useful things, such as roadside vegetation, more accurate road shapes, pedestrian islands and other minor features.
But the benefits don’t end with simple visual cues, because these features also come with additional accessibility information. Access for wheelchairs and prams is also marked on maps, as well as obstacles such as stairs.
In other words, for a pedestrian navigating these four cities, whatever the circumstances, you now have much more useful information to help you get around easily and efficiently.
It is important to mention that not all of these details are universally available at the moment. London and Tokyo do not show traffic lights, for example. This is undoubtedly due to Google not having enough information at the time of writing, similar to how the entire update is restricted to a small handful of cities.
The update depends on Google collecting sufficient relevant information from each city. Therefore, the total size of them means that you cannot expect these details to be available everywhere at the same time.
But if you find yourself in these four cities, all of this will be extremely useful to have on your phone screen. The more you know about your surroundings, the less stressful you will find navigating in an area you are unfamiliar with.
The best part is that this is a server-side update, which means that you don’t have to do anything. Just load any version of Google Maps you want to use and all the news will already be there.