Google Maps has been solving one part of your journey by actually getting you to your destination. But the other difficult part, if you’re driving your own vehicle, when you do get there is finding a place to park your car. Some new features on the app will help you get answers to that problem, like knowing when a venue has parking difficulty and also finding out where you can actually park before getting to the venue. The former is expanding to 25 cities outside of the US while the latter is now available in 25 cities within the US.
25 cities outside the US will now be able to show the parking difficulty icon so drivers will know ahead of time how hard it would be to find parking in the place they’re going to. It will show a range of limited to medium to easy and this is based on historical parking data as well as machine learning information. The icon will now be available in Alicante, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Cologne, Darmstadt, Dusseldorf, London, Madrid, Malaga, Manchester, Milan, Montreal, Moscow, Munich, Paris, Prague, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Sao Paulo, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Toronto, Valencia, and Vancouver.
Meanwhile, the Find Parking feature is rolling out to 25 cities within the US, and from the name itself, you will be able to see parking garages and lots that are near your destination. Once you tap on one, it will automatically be added to your trip and you can get walking directions from the parking to your actual destination. The following US cities will enjoy this feature: Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas/Fort Worth, DC, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York City, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, San Diego, Sacramento, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, and Tampa.
These two new features, plus the ability to save where you parked, makes Google Maps pretty useful not just for directions but for literally getting you from point A to point B, and that includes the things in between, like parking.
SOURCE: Google
