If you use Google Maps to help you navigate while driving, you may have noticed a rather useful feature has been missing all these years: speed limit warnings and radar location notifications that let you know when you're approaching a speed camera.
Now, after running tests in the US, Google's rolling out speed limit warnings to the popular navigation app in 40 countries.
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The rollout will be coming to Google Maps on both Android and iOS devices, as Google confirmed to TechCrunch. Now speed limit signs will appear in the bottom corner of the Maps display, while icons indicating the presence of speed cameras will appear on the roads themselves.
About time
The introduction of speed limit warnings to Google Maps has been a long time coming, especially when you consider that Google already brought the feature to navigation app Waze in 2016.
The new feature will likely make Maps a more realistic competitor to navigation apps and standalone GPS systems from the likes of Garmin and TomTom.
According to Engadget, speed limit warnings will be available in the following countries: "Australia, Brazil, US, Canada, UK, India, Mexico, Russia, Japan, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Morocco, Namibia, Netherlands, Norway, Oman, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Tunisia, and Zimbabwe".
The rollout of course doesn't include countries where apps that disclose the location of speed enforcement equipment is illegal, like France, Switzerland, and Germany. In France, for example, "police are allowed to check your mobile phone for illegal apps and can levy steep fines and even confiscate your vehicle if they find them".
So, best to just keep an eye on your speed the old fashioned way if you're planning a road trip through Western Europe.
