Google Maps Rolls Out the Immersive View Feature

In their latest update to the Maps app, Google has rolled out a new feature for more intuitive directions - Immersive View. As the name suggests, it gives Google Maps users an immersive 3D view of places to give them a more immersive understanding.

The tech giant announced it in May last year, but the anticipated feature has finally become a reality. For now, the feature's been released in only five cities-New York, Los Angeles, London, Tokyo, and San Francisco.

Immersive View will also be made available in Venice, Florence, Dublin, Amsterdam, and other major cities soon.

A Blend of Street View and Aerial Images

In simpler words, Immersive View uses advanced computer vision and AI to blend in billions of Street View and Aerial images. This results in a detailed, 3D model of the world and can give you an immersive view of a place you're checking out on Google Maps.

To create these true-to-life scenes, we use neural radiance fields (NeRF), an advanced AI technique that transforms ordinary pictures into 3D representations.Google Blog Post

The new feature poses direct competition to Apple Maps and its 3D city view feature. However, Google's Immersive View is much more sophisticated and offers more detailed visualizations.

Google Maps is becoming more than just a navigation app

NeRF allows Google to recreate the images into 3D visualizations in great detail. This includes the lighting, texture, and even the background of a place.

The detailed 3D representations of the city enable users to better understand the overall ambiance and environment of a place they're planning to visit. You can even check out how a place in question looks during different times of the day.

Next Up: Glance-able Directions

Immersive View isn't the only big upgrade to Google Maps. The company has also announced the upcoming launch of Glanceable Directions. This feature allows users to navigate by tracking their movement and receiving navigational updates on the lock screen or the route overview screen.

Google has also announced major inclusions in their Indoor Street View feature. Soon, users can enjoy indoor Live View guidance in over 1,000 new locations. It'll be available on both Android and iOS in the coming months. These include malls, airports, and railway stations in major global cities.

New Google Maps Features for EVs

The Google Maps app built into EVs is set to get new features in the upcoming updates too. For instance, the app will be able to advise drivers on the best place to stop by analyzing the current traffic, battery level, and other parameters.

Drivers can also locate EV charging stations of 150 watts and higher using the updated version of the app.

All in all, Google Maps is set to become far more sophisticated, intuitive, and helpful. All the new features should be available shortly, and Immersive View should expand to cover more regions, too. It remains to be seen how good the new features are going to be, but it's safe to be optimistic in this regard.

The post Google Maps Rolls Out the Immersive View Feature appeared first on The Tech Report.