Search engine giant, Google, has announced the launch of new products and features on the light-weight app, Google Go, features like Lens, Discover and Google assistant have been added. The lens feature allows users to interact with Google using cameras.
The map will include information on the expected fare, travel time and even photos of the bus stops to help guide commuters. Outside Lagos, Google is expanding street view imagery to Abuja, Benin City, Enugu and Ibadan.
Commuters making their way through Nigeria can now hear travel advice in a local voice on Google Maps under new features aimed at attracting more users in Africa that were unveiled by the company on Wednesday.
Up to now, Nigerians have had to deal with travel advice from Google in an American accent, that struggled with pronouncing local names such as Lagos’ Alfred Rewane road – which came out as Alfred Re-wain. It also couldn’t cope with the suburb Oworonshoki.
Earlier, when it was tested by some Nigerians, they were surprised to hear an “accent that sounded like them”, according to social media comments.
Google said in the coming months, the maps feature will also allow users in Lagos to seek directions on what it calls “informal transit” – such as the yellow minibuses, known as danfo, that ply virtually every road in the commercial capital, but about which it is difficult for outsiders, or even Lagosians travelling to a new neighbourhood, to find information.
