Posted by Bangalore: Google announced new partnerships with local authorities and organisations in India aimed at bringing more helpful Google maps experience and features to Indian people.
Google Street View back in India
Google Maps relaunched Street View in India in partnership with Genesys International, an advanced mapping solutions company, and Tech Mahindra, a leading IT services company.
Street View is now live and available on Google Maps with fresh imagery licensed from local partners covering over 150,000 km across ten cities in India, including Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, Nashik, Vadodara, Ahmednagar, and Amritsar.
These three companies Google, Genesys International and Tech Mahindra plan to expand their partnership to more than 50 cities by 2022 end. This India launch marks the first time in the world that Street View is being brought to life completely by local partners.
“We believe the Street View launch in India will be instrumental in delivering a more helpful user experience, from virtually visiting locations to getting a better sense of local businesses and establishments. This launch has been made possible only through collaborations with our local partners Tech Mahindra and Genesys International,” said Miriam Karthika Daniel, VP – Google Maps Experience.
“Our partnership with Google is another step toward delivering high-quality and immersive mapping experiences to the people of India,” commented Birendra Sen, Business Head of Business Process Services, Tech Mahindra.
“We are delighted to be a part of the Google Street View programme. We feel that our partnership will go a long way towards offering the most helpful and engaging mapping experience for people and customers across India,” added Sajid Malik, MD of Genesys International.
Partnerships with local authorities
Today, the company announced its partnerships with local traffic authorities to help improve road safety and reduce traffic congestion. Google Maps will now show speed-limits data shared by the traffic authorities, starting with Bengaluru. It has partnered with Bengaluru traffic police as part of the company’s efforts toward delivering models that better optimize traffic light timings.
This is helping the local traffic authority manage road congestion at key intersections, and will eventually scale across the city. Google will further expand this to Kolkata and Hyderabad in partnership with local traffic authorities.
“We are proud to partner with Google to use technology to help reduce traffic congestion and improve road safety for the people of Bengaluru. We are the first Indian city to have started a pilot with Google to optimize the traffic light configuration in Bengaluru to reduce signal wait time for commuters,” said Dr Ravikanthe Gowda, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Bengaluru.
As per the data provided by Google, the revised plan by Google resulted in an average 20% wait time reduction per driver going through the pilot intersection during the day.
Google has additionally partnered with traffic authorities and aggregators across eight cities in India, including Delhi, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Bangalore, and Agra.
Sustainable innovation
Further, the company said it is focused on driving sustainable innovation in partnership with local entities to help India achieve its climate action goals and reduce its carbon footprint.
To date, it has collaborated with 250 NGOs, 60 universities, 30 government agencies, and 15 research organisations that have used Google’s geospatial products to find actionable insights on climate change.
In India, Google recently piloted its Environmental Insights Explorer, a free tool designed to help cities and local governments measure emissions and identify reduction strategies with the help of public transport activity data.
Four Indian cities – Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune and Aurangabad – are using transport emissions data from EIE to develop Climate Action Plans. Google also publicly launched Aurangabad’s EIE data, making it accessible to research organisations to help propose sustainable solutions for the city.
In addition, Google has collaborated with the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to help Indian people make more informed travel decisions by equipping them with authoritative air quality information. People can access this information overlay by tapping the ‘Layers’ button at the top right in their Maps app and selecting the ‘Air Quality’ option.
To launch Street View: simply open Google Maps, zoom into a road in any of these target cities, and tap the area you want to view. Get to know the local cafes and cultural hotspots, or check out the local neighbourhood.
Street View will help people navigate and explore new corners of the country and the world in a more visual and accurate way right from their phone or computer.
Street View APIs will also be available to local developers, enabling them to deliver richer mapping experiences in their services.