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Millions of people around the world rely on Google Maps to get places, and for that, Maps' data has to be as accurate and timely as possible. Google tracks the quality of its data all the time and every few months, it updates us on the improvements or regressions it has noticed. In the latest set of changes, Maps has seen upgrades to the speed limit data in nine countries, accompanied with downgrades in nine others. There are minor changes to biking directions too.
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In the last year, Google Maps began a wide roll-out of visible speed limits during navigation in dozens of countries. Since its release, there's been a wide range of upgrades, downgrades, and, in some cases, the feature disappearing altogether. Following an earlier disappearance, it seems users in the UK may finally have their speed limits back.
Google Maps has been able to alert navigators to posted speed limits for the past couple of years thanks to the work it does in compositing where those signs are planted, be it through their Street View vehicles or by acquiring data from government agencies. It's a behemoth effort, so, without constant monitoring, travelers like you and me will end up reporting inaccuracies. With all that in our head, Google has just updated its speed limit accuracy ratings for 28 countries — the majority of them have been downgraded.
Google Maps is one of the company's most magical services, but its navigational utility sadly varies a bit from country to country. For several reasons, not all regions have the same sort of data available. Google offers three tiers of data availability and quality when it comes to things like biking directions, traffic, and speed limits, and the company has just updated its table for Map Coverage Details to reflect several recent changes in coverage.
Just last week, we reported Google was finally rolling out essential Waze features to Maps, including speed limit indication and speed camera alerts. The company appears to be on an improvement spree, as some users are starting to see an option offering to display a speedometer while they drive.
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- We've been updating this post pretty regularly as you in the comments helpfully chimed in with reports of more and more nations where Google's made this feature available. And while we got a ton of great feedback from all of you, it turns out our list still wasn't quite complete. Thankfully, Google's shared a full breakdown of countries where you can now find this speed-trap data:
When Google bought Waze in 2013, a lot of people expected some of the application's key features would make their way into Maps. Although the company stated both development teams would remain separate, we started seeing some integration a few months later, as the Israeli company's traffic and incident reports were available to Maps users. Many of us also wanted Google's navigation software to get Waze-like alerts when passing by a speed camera, and while the wait lasted for a while, some users started seeing the feature back in January. It seems Google is now rolling it out internationally, as people around the world see these warnings on their phones.
We've got a two-in-one deal in UI tweaks if you spend crucial time in Google Maps. One is a toggle for making speed limits disappear from your navigation view, the other brings business hours without the need for search. Each have their catches.
If you've never heard of speed limits popping up in Google Maps, we can't blame you. As of July 2017, Maps' speed limit feature was only confirmed to work in two areas: the San Francisco Bay Area in California and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. There's been little news since then, but tonight we received three tips from different parts of the US showing that speed limits were live in Maps.
Any maps app thrives on accuracy. Incorrect data should be removed, fixed quickly, or at least it should be marked as such. The Google Maps team keeps a list of its coverage details with markers for availability and data quality, and updates it every now and then to reflect the current state of affairs. Since the last change in July, some improvements have been made, but also some countries have had their data markers downgraded.
You might not have known this, but people in other countries don't often get the same features in Google Maps as you may. There are only a handful of countries that support all of Maps's coverage details, including the US, UK, Canada, and several European nations. Google recently added/improved the traffic layer to six countries, but downgraded speed limit availability in seven others.
Late last night, the latest version of Google Maps began rolling out through the beta channel. For many people, this will likely bring new notifications with convenient shortcuts to local area transit maps. There are also signs that Google is adding integration with bicycle sharing services, a vague hint of new activity around speed limits, and possibly some new perks for Local Guides.
There are some missing features in Android and some of Google's apps that are simply incomprehensible. Speed limits are one of them. In countries where speed limits are enforceable by the law and mandatory to respect (ie not here in Lebanon), it's quite unfathomable to me that you would be using a routing and navigation app that didn't show you the speed limit of each road you were taking so you could drive safely and lawfully. But Google Maps didn't have that and it's not until v9.35 beta from a couple of weeks ago that Cody found the first signs of speed limits support inside the app's APK.
Waze can tell you how to get where you're going. At the end of last month, it started telling people how fast to go on the way. These speed limit notifications were only supported in certain countries, of which the United States was not one.