Google Maps has been displaying color-coded traffic info for a while now, painting the most congested areas in your city in red during rush hour, for instance, but it has just now become so confident in its traffic jam telling abilities, that the app is going into the prediction business.
When you tap "Directions" to go to a place in Google Maps now, and choose the car driving option, the "Route info" tab at the bottom left corner of the display will pull up not only the turn-by-turn recap of the trip, complete with Street View snapshots of each junction, but will also display a bar chart in the header that indicates the best time to leave, based on current traffic conditions.
Pretty neat, especially when the difference in bar heights in the chart is significant, indicating you will travel much faster within the time slot that Google has chosen for you. After all, we can't all afford the new Audi A8 that drives for you when in a jam.
Daniel, a devoted tech writer at PhoneArena from 2010 to 2025, has been engrossed in mobile technology since the Windows Mobile era. His expertise spans mobile hardware, software, and carrier networks, and he's keenly interested in the future of digital health, car connectivity, and 5G. Beyond his professional pursuits, Daniel finds balance in travel, reading, and exploring new tech innovations, while contemplating the ethical and privacy implications of our digital future.
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