Google Maps is one of those products that just seems to continually get new features, and typically it just gets better and better. The latest update to hit the Android app for Google Maps will give you a forecast of how long travel time will be to a searched destination through out the day.
The new feature will show a graph of the expected, and current actual travel time to any searched destination. As you can see above if I leave now I can get to the CBD in a bit under 30 minutes, which is faster than average for the day and time (denoted by the grey shadow behind the green bar). However, if I leave closer to 1600 I will take me almost the full half hour.
This is very similar to the ‘busy‘ feature added to Google Maps business listings last year. It’s a shame you can’t “scroll out” to a longer time frame but hopefully that is a feature we will see make its way to the app in the future.
The new feature is a handy guide to tell you that you need to get going to your destination at a certain time. Of course programming in your commitments in to Google Calendar with a location means that Google Now will always update you when it’s time to hit the road. The new feature was available on all the Android devices I had access to but was not showing on the web for me.
