PositiveNewsCorner

Based on inputs by Shahid K

As part of improvement of SOS alerts to Google Maps, the company has introduced navigation features that will not only warn about crises along route, but will also suggest changes to route to avoid them when possible. For example if a flood threatens to block the way, this feature will help reach safety.

Maps will show hurricane path cones, earthquake shake maps and flood forecasts. The information will be available through crisis cards that pop up in the app when you’re in an affected area, but you’ll also see them if you search Google for disaster- or location-related keywords regardless of where you are.

The visualisations will reach Android, iOS and the web in the “coming weeks,” with flood visualisations (excluding iOS) starting in the Indian city of Patna and spreading to the Brahmaputra and Ganges regions.

Crisis-aware navigation, meanwhile, will appear in mobile apps sometime this summer.