Google Maps has for years now been one of the must have apps on any smartphone (sorry Windows Phone users). It has provided directions, business reviews, public transportation schedules, entertaining easter eggs, satellite imagery, real-time navigation, POIs, and is now improving again to provide ridesharing transportation information for yet another way for users to get from point A to… wherever.
Back in 2014 Maps integrated Uber into the app, providing travel information as one of the options and letting you jump into the Uber App to book a driver. In the coming weeks, Google will be adding five more service across five countries: 99Taxis in Brazil, Ola Cabs in India, Hailo in the UK and Spain, mytaxi in Germany and Spain, and Gett in the UK. The travel times and availability will be displayed inside the Maps app and if you additionally have the service provider’s app installed, it will also display fares, driver availability and pick up time. Once a suitable provider is selected, the user will be taken into their specific app to actually book the ride. It would of course be great if everything could be done inside the Google Maps app but it is understandable that each provider wanted to keep their branding and user experience as part of the equation.
Users in the listed countries will start seeing updates to their Maps app in the next few days. The statement did not mention when these additions would be made available in other countries or what other providers will be added in the near future. It would be nice to see Lyft and a few other similar services like Zipcar join the list.
What do you think? Are you excited to see more ridesharing options available in Google Maps? Let us know in the comment section below or on Google+, Facebook, or Twitter.
[button link=”https://maps.googleblog.com/2016/03/your-car-has-arrived-more-ways-to-get.html” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Google Blog[/button]
