Lucy Dean* says Google Maps is adding a feature that will tell us if our Uber or taxi driver is taking a strange route.
Ever have that feeling your taxi or Uber driver is taking you on a strange route to your destination?
Maybe they know something about the traffic situation that you don’t — or maybe they want a bigger fare.
Either way, it’s an uneasy situation and it’s something Google Maps wants to address.
Google recently added a speedometer in Maps so passengers can see if their driver is speeding, and according to XDA Developers, the tech giant is now also testing off-route alerts, which send an alert to your phone every time the driver veers off course by more than 500 metres.
Passengers — or drivers who get lost easily — just need to hit the “stay safer” option before starting their route and choose to receive “off-route alerts”.
However, it appears the off-route feature is currently only available in India, but according to Digital Trends, the feature will likely be rolled out to other countries.
The feature follows several other safety features added to Google Maps, like SOS alerts.
SOS alerts provide users with “authoritative, real-time information during times of crisis”, Google Maps Product Manager, Hannah Stulberg said in a blog post earlier this month.
The SOS alerts now also include visual information and a new navigation warning system so drivers can understand where the danger is and where it’s headed.
SOS alerts already include news stories, emergency numbers and websites, but the new update will mean users will receive visualisations, and crisis notifications in the days leading up to forecast weather events such as hurricanes or cyclones.
“This card will direct you to a hurricane forecast cone, which shows the prediction of the storm’s trajectory along with information about what time it’s likely to hit certain areas, so you can use this information to plan how to react,” Stulberg said.
“After an earthquake strikes, tapping on the crisis card will display the earthquake’s shakemap — a visualisation that shows you its epicentre, its magnitude, along with colour coding to indicate how intense the shaking was in surrounding areas.”
“This information can help you quickly assess the reach of the earthquake and identify areas likely to have experienced the highest impact.”
The feature can also be used to see flood forecasts and information about the expected severity.
* Lucy Dean is a personal finance journalist at Yahoo Finance Australia. She tweets at @thelucydean.
This article first appeared at au.finance.yahoonews.com.
