When disaster strikes, we’ve come to rely on our phones. We scroll through Twitter for the latest update on a hurricane or flood, and mark ourselves safe from wildfires or tornadoes on Facebook.
Now Google is adding a disaster-navigation tool to Google Maps. Launching later this summer, a new feature on Google Maps will route users away from areas that are affected by extreme weather events. It will allow you to see confirmed road closures in the affected area, as well as suspected closures (based on crowdsourced user responses). Maps users will also be able to share their live location and other details of the event with friends and family members.
The idea is to integrate real-time (or near-real-time) information into an app that millions of people already use frequently.
“What we heard from users is they want to be able to see the best and most reliable information in that map context,” Google Maps product manager Hannah Stulberg told USA Today.
There are visual updates to existing alerts coming, too. In the case of a hurricane, a notification card will pop up days in advance with a “forecast cone” showing the storm’s trajectory and a prediction of when it might hit your area. Likewise, an earthquake “shake app” will show the quake’s epicenter and magnitude. And in India—where the tech giant has been experimenting with AI to predict flooding—Google Maps will display forecasts of when the next flood will come and where the biggest flood risks are.