Google Maps update brings real-time bus tracking to London: Here's three things to know

With modern technology being what it is (i.e. more advanced than the average person) it’s not surprising that there is a daily slew of updates ranging from useful to impressive. Also, thanks to the sheer volume of developments across everything from tech to streaming, it’s not surprising that a recent Google Maps update went slightly under the radar.

The crux of the update is that it shows you the real-time location of each bus on your local area map, nationwide. Amongst the minutiae of the update, we’ve pulled out three of the main things you need to know about the change.

1. It’s a very basic upgrade

Yeah, so not to throw shade, but there’s probably a reason this update has flown pretty much under the radar so far. Aside from a line in a press release from the UK Government (more on that later), there hasn’t been a lot of shouting about it. The main reason for this is likely because the upgrade itself, whilst definitely a step in the right direction, is fairly rudimentary. The official app shows you the real-time location of each bus on the map of the local area, with updates happening every 10 seconds or so, showing delays, diversions, and how far away they actually are.

2. It’s in partnership with the UK Government

So the update itself is a partnership between the UK Government and Google, as part of its 'Better Connected: tap-and-go travel across trains, trams and buses' transport strategy. The service will be especially useful for passengers in rural areas where bus services are less frequent. Google Maps' new update is similar to "ride-hailing" apps, and allows you to see the actual bus moving along the map in real-time, rather than just seeing a countdown timer.

3. It’s not using original data

Like most maps that pop up showing you the real-time location of buses, tubes, and other traffic, the data used isn’t a unique tracked set of stats. It seems to be coming from the Bus Open Data Service (BODS), which features detailed information about buses across England. This includes vehicle location, fares, data and timetabling, and essentially does all the hard work for services like Google and any other interested parties – think City Mapper, Waze, the list goes on. Given the scale of Google as a company and its penchant for pioneering, it wouldn’t be surprising if they start to develop their own in-house metrics to analyse and progress the data.

You may be wondering what makes it different from other apps, as some other services like Apple Maps already have a similar live-map feature for most buses in London, showing the last known location of the bus you’re attempting to take and an estimation of how far away it is in minutes. Apple also shows bus delay information, although Google Maps’ new update should show delays as well as where the buses are across England.

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