New feature by Google Maps

 Introduction of new feature to make driving more colourful and fun by Google Maps   

Google Maps is one of the best tools for navigating from A to B, whether you're walking, cycling or driving a car. And if you're doing the latter, you now have more car icons and colours to choose from to represent your vehicle. When Google bought Waze for $1.3 billion in 2013, it was obvious that it would move some of Waze's crowdsourcing features to Google Maps. Over the years, Google has added many Waze-like features such as the ability to quickly report a crash, a slowdown, police activity, construction, a lane closure, a stalled vehicle, an object on the road, a flooded road, low visibility and an unploughed road. All of these hazards can be reported in seconds. While Google Maps is the most popular navigation tool available, is it the best? Here, we explore all the reasons you should use Google Maps.

When using Google Maps for directions while driving, the default icon representing you and your vehicle on the map is a blue arrow. However, there are other options available (if you know where to look), and Google has now added even more options. Now, Google Maps is adding another feature associated with Waze. The former will be adding new car icons to replace the blue arrow and other icons which can be used to represent your car on the navigation map. You can make this change on your iOS or Android-powered handset by pulling up the the menu from the handle near the bottom of the screen which shows how much time is left on your drive, the mileage remaining on your journey and the estimated time of arrival. Grab the handle, swipe up and you'll see a menu with several options.

For several years, Google Maps has offered you the chance to switch from the default blue arrow to one of three car icons: a red sedan, a green pickup truck or a yellow SUV. These icons are pretty basic though, and the colours are set in stone. The next to last option reads Vehicle icon. Tap on it and you can select from the traditional arrow icon, a sports car, a pickup truck, an SUV, a sedan and more for a total of eight icons. Just swipe through them to sell all of your choices. There are eight colour options including:-

Glacier white

Night black

Ash grey

Poppy red

Sky blue

Sunny yellow

Aqua green

Sunset magenta

Google Maps Trip Options

Google Maps' default Trip Options

New car options in Google Maps

This set of options means that you should be able to choose a close match for your own car. While the model and shade of colour may not be an exact match to your own vehicle, it should be close enough to make Google Maps feel more personal to you. Another way to change your icon is to tap on the default vehicle icon which appears once you set your destination and start navigation. You must have the most up-to-date version of Google Maps on your iOS or Android-powered device to get this feature. One way to do this would be to install the latest version of Google Maps for iOS on your iPhone. Everything about the new car icons, from the way they look to the UI used to select your car and the colour that you want the vehicle to be, looks like it just stepped right out of the Waze app. There are several ways to change the car icon in Google Maps, but you end up at the same screen regardless:-

Before starting a journey, you can tap the sliders to open the Trip Options menu, then tap Vehicle icon while navigating.

During a journey, you can tap the journey bar underneath the map, then tap Vehicle icon.

At the start of or during a journey, you can tap the icon itself on the map to go straight to the Choose vehicle icon options.

Google Maps and Waze have two separate functions. The former is for those who not only want to navigate quickly and safely from "A" to "B," but also want recommendations on where to dine, where to spend the night, where to find local entertainment and more. Waze is more about the actual journey and using crowd sourced information which makes the drive easier to make. The option to choose a car icon that more closely resembles your own vehicle is a fun frivolity that isn't going to change your world. However, it could help to make long car journeys at least a little more colourful. Google has obviously been inspired by Waze here, with the latter offering a broad range of vehicle icons.