Google has demonstrated how artificial intelligence is helping it to achieve its aims with updates to immersive view and Live View as well as brand-new features geared toward users of electric vehicles and public transportation. Google debuted Live View in Search and the capability to locate EV charging stations the previous year.
Google’s Immersive View provides a distinctive way to discover a place by creating the feeling that you are already there. This ground-breaking technique combines billions of street view and aerial photographs with AI and computer vision to create a complete digital representation of the entire world. It also offers helpful details like weather reports, traffic updates, and population density.
You can use virtual exploration to plan a trip to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam using Google’s Immersive View. Using the time slider, you can fly over the structure, find entrances, and assess the weather and population density at various times of day. Before making a reservation, you can browse for nearby restaurants and look inside them to get a feel for their atmosphere.
Neural radiance fields (NeRF), a cutting-edge AI technology that converts normal photographs into 3D representations, are used to create this immersive experience. With NeRF, a location’s entire environment, including lighting, material textures, and backdrop features, is precisely portrayed.
This makes it possible for you to decide whether the mood lighting in a pub is appropriate for a date night or whether a café has fantastic views for lunch with friends.
By holding up your phone while outside, Google’s Live View uses AI and AR to help you locate nearby attractions like ATMs, restaurants, parks, and public transportation. You may make well-informed judgements and make the most of your time by using Live View, which provides useful information like operating hours, current crowd sizes, and ratings.
You may navigate with confidence using Live View, which employs AR-powered arrows to direct you to your target location, including the closest rest rooms, lounges, taxi stands, car rental agencies, and more.
In order to better serve EV drivers and owners of Google-equipped vehicles, Google has added additional Maps functionality.
When driving, Google Maps will recommend the best charging stop based on real-time traffic, your current battery level, and projected energy use, adding charging stops to shorter trips. No matter where you are going, you no longer have to worry about remembering to charge your car. If you’d prefer another alternative, you can also quickly switch the suggested charging station with only a few taps.
Locating charging stations with chargers of 150 kilowatts or more is simple thanks to Google Maps’ “extremely fast” charging feature. You can refuel and carry on your journey after a rapid charge of several automobiles that takes less than 40 minutes.
Google Maps will display results for locations such as supermarkets that have on-site charging stations. This makes it simpler to pick a store where you can charge your car while doing your grocery shopping.
Using public transportation, walking, biking, or any other means of mobility, Google is making it easier for you to get about.
You may follow your route with quick and simple instructions from the route overview or lock screen. Updated ETAs and turn-by-turn directions are now available, which were previously only available by unlocking your phone and utilising the full navigation mode. If you choose a different path, Maps will automatically modify your journey.
Immersive view is now available in Tokyo, London, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco. It will be accessible in more locations over the next months, including Amsterdam, Dublin, Florence, and Venice.
The Live View function will be made available in Barcelona, Dublin, and Madrid in the upcoming months. In the upcoming months, more than 1,000 other airports, train stations, and retail centres in cities including Barcelona, Berlin, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Melbourne, Paris, Prague, So Paulo, Singapore, Sydney, and Taipei will also have indoor Live View access.
In the following months, the new glanceable directions feature will roll out globally on both Android and iOS. On iOS 16.1, it will also function with Live Activities.
