Google's SOS alerts already give you vital information when you're in a crisis zone, and now that includes driving directions. As part of a broader expansion of SOS alerts to Google Maps, the company has introduced navigation features that will not only warn you about crises along your route, but will change your route to avoid them when possible. If a flood threatens to block your way, this might just help you reach safety.
Google Maps will navigate you away from crises
You'll also get visual details for natural disasters.
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You'll also have some help understanding the scope of a natural disaster no matter what you're doing. Maps will show hurricane path cones, earthquake shakemaps and flood forecasts. The info will be available through crisis cards that pop up in the app when you're in an affected area, but you'll also see them if you search Google for disaster- or location-related keywords regardless of where you are.
It'll take a while for everything to become available. The visualizations will reach Android, iOS and the web in the "coming weeks," with flood visualizations (which don't include iOS) starting in the Indian city of Patna and spreading to the Brahmaputra and Ganges regions. Crisis-aware navigation, meanwhile, will appear in mobile apps sometime this summer. While you'll hopefully never have to use any of these features, they could be vital if you're unsure of where you can go in a dangerous situation.
