Google Maps now wants to establish itself as a useful solution for cities and other stakeholders working on road maintenance. While implementing even more data to make itself even more indispensable to businesses and developers needing a mapping solution.
Google Maps, particularly its Street View feature, is already very useful for visually observing changes over time – such as construction carried out without a municipal permit. A cursor allows access to older image sets of virtually any location. However, the platform is now moving up a gear. With new features that are potentially very useful for local authorities, road maintenance stakeholders, and more broadly, all companies and public stakeholders whose activity requires a mapping solution.
For now, this wave of new features seems primarily intended for the United States. But what Google has come up with is so well thought out that it's worth taking a moment to consider. Particularly what the company is now offering in Street View in the United States – leveraging AI-powered image recognition to better identify road infrastructure.
Google Maps is getting some very useful new features for public stakeholders
All of this can be found in a new tool called Roads Management Insights. All of the photos held by Google, including those added by Internet users, are analyzed to provide the most accurate overview of the situation, and, above all, to add an extremely useful new layer. Roadside features like poles and signs are automatically identified by AI. This makes it easy to mark an element as damaged, allowing for faster intervention. It also reduces errors.
Those who manage urban planning also benefit from the tool. AI also identifies potentially buildable land, including in Internet user photos. In the United States, Google is also using BigQuery data to better monitor the impact of forest fires and the evolution of deforestation. Beyond cities, businesses also have access to these augmented views, which can potentially help them in their development.
In addition, Google is adding new programming interfaces that can directly benefit developers. The Weather API provides weather mapping, which could allow a travel app, for example, to suggest destinations that maximize the chances of enjoying a sunny stay. For now, Google has not provided any information on the arrival of these new features on the European market. We can, however, hope that alternatives, based in Europe, will eventually draw inspiration from them.
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