According to Google, a new Google Maps feature that estimates the amount you’ll have to pay in tolls to drive a given route has started appearing in the Android and iOS apps.
Android Police reports seeing the new toll pricing in the app, though it’s not yet visible on a pair of devices we’ve tried along the same route. Google first announced the toll feature in April.
It will be available for almost 2,000 roads in the US, India, Japan, and Indonesia.
Google says that displayed toll pricing is based on “trusted information from local tolling authorities” and takes toll passes and time of day into account when calculating the total cost.
There’s also a toggle to “avoid tolls” when calculating routes. Google Maps has previously been able to alert you when a toll is payable overall on a journey but not calculate what that toll might amount to.
According to Google, the feature is available for “nearly 2000” toll roads in the US, India, Japan, and Indonesia for its iOS and Android apps. It says it plans to add support in more countries “soon.”
Google Maps is a web mapping forum and consumer application suggested by Google. It provides aerial photography, street maps, satellite imagery, real-time traffic conditions, 360° interactive panoramic views of streets (Street View), and route planning for traveling by foot, car, bike, air (in beta), and public transportation. As of 2020, Google Maps was being used by over 1 billion people worldwide every month.
Google Maps started as a C++ desktop program created by brothers Lars and Jens Rasmussen at Where 2 Technologies. In October 2004, the company was formulated by Google, which converted it into a web application. After additional accessions to a geospatial data visualization company and a real-time traffic analyzer, Google Maps was founded in February 2005.
The service’s front end employs JavaScript, XML, and Ajax. In addition, Google Maps delivers an API that allows maps to be embedded on third-party websites and provides a locator for businesses and other organizations worldwide.
Google Map Maker allowed users to expand and update the service’s mapping worldwide collaboratively but was discontinued in March 2017. However, crowdsourced assistance to Google Maps was not suspended as the company announced those components would be transferred to the Google Local Guides schedule.
Google Maps’ satellite panorama is a “top-down” or bird’s-eye view; most of the high-resolution imagery of cities is aerial photography taken from aircraft flying at 800 to 1,500 feet (240 to 460 m), while most other imagery is from satellites. Much of the available satellite imagery is no more than three years old and is updated regularly.
For example, Google Maps formerly used a variant of the Mercator projection and, therefore, could not accurately show areas around the poles. In August 2018, the desktop version of Google Maps was updated to show a 3D globe. Switching to the 2D map in the settings is still possible.
Google Maps for Android and iOS devices was released in September 2008 and featured GPS turn-by-turn navigation and dedicated parking assistance features.
In August 2013, it was determined to be the world’s most popular smartphone app, with over 54% of global smartphone owners using it.
In May 2017, the app was reported to have 2 billion users on Android, along with several other Google services, including YouTube, Chrome, Gmail, Search, and Google Play.