As the Global pandemic continues to live in our minds and unfortunately our bodies Google has today announced a new update to Google Maps aimed at trying to assist public transport users to avoid the crowds. The two new features include predicted crowdedness and in a limited rollout live crowdedness.
Thanks to Google’s AI foo, users from 1000’s of cities in 100’s of countries can get predicted business indicators for different times of the day, similar to how Google maps shop crowdedness works. Using historic data and trends Google will now predict how busy public transport may be.
Starting as a limited trial in Sydney and New York Google Maps will also be providing live crowdedness indicators based on a mix of historic and live user data. This will include the ability to see how crowded a specific train car may be.
For many people using public transport is an unavoidable fact of life, for them, it’s great to see a new tool in the arsenal in avoiding crowds to maintain social distancing.
