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Google March 7 introduced a potentially great time-saving feature for motorists, adding the ability to route users around traffic congestion with the Google Maps Navigation turn-by-turn GPS feature.
Google Maps Navigation has saved me a lot of time and stress of Googling directions and printing them out to follow. From my Droid X, I type in my destination on Google Maps and tap the Navigation option to have spoken directions lead me.
The tool provides directions for the fastest route possible, along with alternate directions, such as the shortest route or one that uses highways instead of side roads.
However, and I remember experiencing this on I-95 here in Connecticut a year ago when I began testing the feature on various Android phones, the directions aren’t so fast when there is a traffic jam.
Now I, and millions of other U.S. and European users who use the Google Maps feature to drive a total of 35 million miles per day, can receive less cluttered routes.
Google will use data mapping to determine current and historical traffic, including accidents, construction, road closures and general traffic patterns, over the course of a day to choose the fastest path to a destination from alternate routes.
Of course, directions may result in your taking some roundabout, scenic tours, but it may be preferable to sitting in traffic for some folks.
The best part, aside from the time-saving capability, is that users won’t have to do anything differently; they can still engage the tool from the Navigation application or from within Google Maps.