Google Maps Gets New AR Features, Accessibility Icons, EV Charging Info

From CNET: Google Maps is getting a new augmented reality tool in the coming days that lets you use your phone camera to find out what's around you. The feature, called Search with Live View, is arriving with other features including accessibility icons and a mechanism to find the right kind of EV charger, the company said Thursday.

With Search with Live View, you'll be able to hold up your phone while walking around London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, San Francisco or Tokyo, and Google Maps will show relevant information about what it's seeing through your camera. That includes landmarks, street names, restaurants, ATMs and hotels. All people have to do is tap on the camera icon next to the microphone in Google Maps.

The change is an example of how Google is trying to transform its services to use modern technology, combining the data-gathering abilities of our phones with the power of its massive databases of information. Typing some text to find out information is useful, but Google's advances here with cameras and AR are geared to make sense of the world around us in a more direct way.

Another notable Google Maps change is for electric vehicle owners who need to charge their cars. The updated Google Maps will let you filter charging station information to find plugs that are compatible with your EV or find fast chargers.

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