Google announces Tuesday a series of innovations for Google Maps. Not all innovations will be available everywhere at once, such as notifications for environmental zones, where certain older cars with excessive emissions are not allowed to be driven. These zones will be shown from June in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain and the United Kingdom.

If said environmental zone is on the user’s route, Google Maps will suggest a different route or alternative transportation. The route planner itself will also be updated soon. Now users have to choose between tabs with means of transport: car, bicycle, public transport.

New layout route planner

Soon there will be a list, with the options at the top that the user chooses the most or that are the most popular in a certain place; the subway comes first in New York, London and Tokyo. In addition, Maps will give preference to routes with the lowest fuel consumption, if the arrival time is approximately the same, first in the US and then worldwide.

Navigation within buildings also becomes easier, with the addition of augmented reality. That option is now available for navigating outside: Maps shows large, floating arrows above the road so there is no confusion about the route. That option will also hit major US department stores and stations and airports. The deployment of the AR function is still limited: outside the US, Tokyo and Zurich stations will be the first to act.