Google Maps with Navigation update helps you avoid traffic jams

by Steve Ragan - Mar 8 2011, 10:00

Google’s newest update for Google Maps with Navigation, the free voice-guided GPS system for your Android device, comes with various improvements, including one that uses real-time traffic data to help you avoid gridlock.

“Ever been stuck in traffic, only to find out you’d have been better off going a bit out of your way to take a less congested route?,” asked Google’s Roy Williams in a blog post.

“It doesn’t need to be this way, and we want to help… You don’t have to do anything to be routed around traffic; just start Navigation like you normally would…”

Once the destination is entered, Navigation will point you in the right direction - using historical and real-time traffic information - using the best route possible, given traffic conditions.

“Not only can you save time and fuel, you’re making traffic better for everyone else by avoiding traffic jams. Keep in mind that we can’t guarantee that Navigation will be able to find a faster way, but it will always try to get you where you’re going as fast as possible,” added Williams.

Previous versions of Navigation would only recommend the fastest path to a given location without using traffic data. For many, this meant being stuck on the interstate or in mid-town gridlock.

“On a recent trip to New York, I was running late to meet some friends at the Queens Museum of Art. I had no idea that there was a traffic jam along the route I would normally have taken. Thankfully, Navigation routed me around traffic. I didn’t even have to know that there was a traffic jam on I-495…,” Williams explained in his blog post.

The update was released March 3 in North America and Europe. You can install it from the Android Market.

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