Google Maps Will Now Alert You to Nearby Police Officers
Google makes it easier to follow traffic laws, or at least let you know when you should pay extra attention to them. New traffic tracking features will be coming to Maps and Waze, including the ability to report police presence in Maps and stay up to date on events like the Olympics in Waze.
Borrowing a feature from Waze , the iOS, Android, and Car versions of the Google Maps app now allow users to report where police are, building on an existing feature that tracks car accidents and speed traps . As with these features, users can tell the app when they’ve seen a police officer, and drivers passing through the same area will be asked to confirm. As long as people continue to acknowledge the police presence, others will be warned about it.
Of course, there’s a lot of fiddling around with the touchscreen while driving, which is why Google is also making the report buttons bigger.
Even in the Maps app, alerts can come from both Maps and Waze users to give you the widest possible range of data. Waze will also get some exclusive new features, such as the ability to report traffic lights that also track your speed. In addition to user reports, Waze will also use “public data” to label its maps. Waze will also have the ability to see turn-by-turn directions and other navigation instructions on the lock screen, coming to Android this month and iOS in the fall.
Waze already has a Traffic Events feature that aggregates event-related closures and detours into one page. Commuters who regularly travel through affected areas will automatically receive an alert from the app once the event begins, which they can then share with others. Travel events for the Paris Olympics are being broadcast right now.
Back to Google Maps: Once you are at your destination, it will be easier to get into the building. In the “coming weeks,” Google Maps will enable “Destination Navigation,” which will highlight your specific destination building in red and show building entrances in green. The app will also illuminate nearby parking lots. Destination navigation will work in all versions of the Google Maps app.