Google Maps is a blessing in disguise when one is travelling to foreign destinations or even for exploring new places in home city. It is a must-have application that one needs to install in their mobile phones which helps in figuring out the most efficient and effective way to reach desired cafe, park, museum or whatever destination.
However, if you hire a cab to reach from one place to another, you might not be sure if the driver is using the most efficient path. Even worse, the driver may take you along a route you are not comfortable with. As of now, there hasn’t been any mechanism as such — either within the cab apps or in Google Maps — to warn you of a driver’s off routing. Until now.
Google seems to be testing a new feature in it’s application that will alert the user with the warning if it’s driver is driving too far off the desired route that one should likely be on. And interestingly, the feature is now live in India. It provides warning if one gets sidetracked from the intended route by 500 meters.
This will ensure that the driver does not charge too much for the ride via the longer route intentionally undertaken. It will also provide safety from abuse or several abductions that riders certainly experience, although nowadays fewer such cases take place.
India has been the ideal test ground for Google Maps, considering the massive population, innumerable use cases and complexities of public & private transport in the country. Last week, Google added a feature where one could track the delay in public transport and look for autorickshaws fares using Google Maps in India.
In addition, it is also coming up with a separate section to highlight the most preferred cuisine in restaurants, with menus built using machine learning and their descriptions from the reviews written by users on Google.
