If you are a Google Maps user, then we have something interesting for you! Google has has included the Street View feature in India, which will enable users to explore places more visually and accurately with a 360 degrees view of the roads and public buildings of a city.
The feature will be available on Google Maps with fresh imagery licensed from local partners covering over 150,000 kilometers across ten cities in the country, including Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, Nashik, Vadodara, Ahmednagar, and Amritsar.
“India’s digital adoption continues to move at a phenomenal pace, and we remain focused on accurately modeling, reflecting, and solving for today’s rapidly-evolving India,” Google said in a statement.
The tech giant says that Google Maps will now show speed limits data shared by the traffic authorities, starting with Bengaluru. Google said Street View APIs will also be available to local developers enabling them to deliver richer mapping experiences in their services. In eight cities including Delhi, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Bangalore, and Agra, it will also provide information on road closures and incidents across eight cities ‘to help people make informed travel decisions and avoid congestion zones.’
“We believe the launch of Street View in India will be instrumental in delivering a more helpful user experience, from virtually visiting locations to getting a better sense of local businesses and establishments,” Miriam Karthika Daniel, VP – Google Maps Experiences, said in a statement.
Google’s parent company Alphabet has partnered with Genesys International and Tech Mahindra, marking the first time when the tech giant has taken the help of local partners to collect data for Street View. Street view feature will be rolled out to 50 cities by the end of 2022, says Google.
Google Street View was to launch in India back in 2011, but the Indian government refused to grant permission over security regulations. However, under the new National Geospatial Policy, 2021, local companies can collect such data and license it out to foreign companies, paving the way for Google to introduce the feature in India
