Google is now rolling out a big update for the Maps application on Android smartphones. This will add a new services tab in the maps interface, besides walking, driving and public transportation directions. This specific tab will show fares and ride options from cab providers Uber and Ola in India. While Uber is a global partner, Maps will also include listings from Gett in the UK, 99Taxis in Brazil, Hailo in the UK and Spain as well as mytaxi in Germany and Spain. We take a look at how this feature works.
For the new cabs feature, you will need to have the Maps ver. 9.22.0 installed on your Android phone. Since this is a phased rollout, chances are you may still not see this update on the Google Play Store on your phone. We also didn’t, even on high-end devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S7, Moto X Style and OnePlus 2 (the latest version on the Play Store is still ver. 9.21.00). For this story, we downloaded an APK installation file from the Internet—though that is one route we would not recommend.
Once the app is ready for you, sign in with your Google account. To make the Maps app run smoothly, you must keep the location services switched on (Settings -> Privacy and Safety -> Location -> Toggle ON). The app picks your location, shows that on a map and asks you to punch in the destination. If you have been using Google Maps a lot, chances are, you’ll get a long list of previously visited places, in addition to the option of typing in a new address. Once that is done, the interface switches to show you the route on the map, and a bar slides up at the bottom of the screen suggesting the approximate journey time and distance. Tap on the navigate button, and it takes you to a screen with four tabs at the top of the map. The tab on the extreme right is for cabs. Tap on this, and you will get a listing of three each of Uber and Ola cabs available in your area.
This is where things get a bit interesting. To get this listing, you need to have the Uber and Ola apps installed on the phone, and signed in with your account.
At the first run, the Maps app did not show any Ola listings, even though we had the app fully configured. A restart of the phone solved that issue—perhaps this is a bug that needs to be ironed out.
Tap on any of the listings that show up, and you will be taken to the respective Uber or Ola app. When we tested with Uber, the good thing was that the Uber app picked up the destination we had punched in Google Maps, and suggested the approximate fares as well as the option to pay using the PayTM wallet. However, in the Ola app, we had to enter the destination point once again, because it did not automatically detect that from the handshake with Google Maps.
At present, bookings and payments for the ride are done through the individual apps, but it would be naïve to not expect Google Maps to integrate at least the booking feature in the near future, simply because it already has access to the basic information of cab availability. However, it remains to be seen whether cab companies will be able to share user details as well as surge pricing details in real time.
As a word of caution, the cost of journey that Google Maps shows is just an approximation, and you will get the final pricing only on the Uber and Ola apps, after factoring in elements such as surge pricing.
Google says that Android smartphone users will get this feature for the time being, though the iOS version of Google Maps should be rolled out soon. If Google Maps was already not indispensable, this new cabs feature makes it even more relevant.
