Google Maps adds better EV charging station search and live location viewing

First, the Live View visual search experience is rolling out to London, Los Angeles, New York, Pare, San Francisco and Tokyo. First introduced in September, the feature uses Street View imagery and AI.

The blog post explains more about how it works:

Let’s say you’re visiting New York with plans to do some holiday shopping and meet up with friends. Pick up your phone and tap the camera icon in the search bar to see nearby shops and other places like cafes, banks and ATMs. With AR-powered directions and arrows, you can see which way they’re headed and how far away they are—and even spot places that aren’t in your line of sight (like the clothing store around the block) to get a real sense of the neighborhood at first glance. view. To find other places to hang out, tap on different city categories to explore which restaurants, bars, bakeries, parks and public transport stops are nearby.

In addition to location, you can also see information about places, such as whether it’s open, how busy it is, price range, and reviews from the Google Maps community.

Anyone with an electric vehicle can now use the app to find the best available charging station. Start searching for “EV charging stations” and then select the fast charging filter.

This will show stations with chargers of 50kW or more. Another filter option is the ability to view stations that offer a type of car plug.

The option to view accessible places is now available worldwide, after initially launching in the US, Australia, Japan and the UK in 2020. When you turn on accessible locations in the app, you can see if a destination is wheelchair accessible.

Google Maps is a free download for iPhone and all iPad models. It’s also available on Apple Watch.

Earlier this year, Google Maps was completely independent on the Apple Watch, so you don’t need an iPhone nearby to navigate.