My company is looking for map API that supports driving route and time inquiries for future trips, e.g. getting a best route for a trip tomorrow at noon. A closer prediction would be use historical average traffic to generate such a route.
I thought Google Maps would have such capability, but it doesn't seem that they do, according to the description on their website:
"For driving directions: Google Maps API for Work customers can specify the departure_time to receive trip duration considering current traffic conditions. The departure_time must be set to within a few minutes of the current time."
So my question is: why Google is not doing general departure_time based inquiries at the moment? Is Google planning to offer the service in future? If so, when?
Thanks!
You can submit a feature request at Google Maps Issue Tracker
Related
I'm reading the documentation of GM-APIs, I found the section relative to "Places", but I can't find anything to get the information about the per-hour number of customers for a certain place.
Do you know whenever you search a place on GMaps, there is an indication of the frequency of customers, in that way you can know if the place will be busy or empty.
Is there any way to retrieve that information through Google Maps API?
Currently, there is no available feature in Google Maps API that could get the exact number or the of people in an establishment to determine its busiest time of the day.
However, there is an existing Feature Request in Google Map Platform's Public issue tracker to expose the place's popular times which seems to be related to the feature you are looking for.
Here's the link to that feature request: https://issuetracker.google.com/35827350. You can star/favorite this feature request and feel free to leave a comment there regarding your use case for additional information as well.
I'm building a Google MAPs URL to launch in a new tab, and I'd like to specify Arrival Time for Transit directions. I am not using the API, just the basic URL options outlined here.
It makes no mention of being able to specify arrival time. Some older posts do mention this for platform-specific cases, e.g. here for iOS, but they are using a very different looking URL format to what is outlined in the link above.
I know specifying Arrival Time requires you specify mode as transit, which I'm doing.
As an example, the following URL will bring up transit directions from 30 Rock in New York to the Metropolitan Museum of Art:
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/?api=1&origin=30+Rockefeller+Plaza%2C+New+York%2C+NY+10112%2C+USA&destination=1000+5th+Ave%2C+New+York%2C+NY+10028%2C+USA&travelmode=transit
Without using the actual Google Maps API and all that entails (API Key, proxy server for security, paying per use), is there a modification to that URL that would allow me to specify an arrival date and time? I tried appending &ttype=arr&date=05/13&time=08:00 as shown in the previous post I linked, but that did not help.
I would suggest to file for a Feature Request regarding this in our Google Issue Tracker [1].
Issue Tracker is a tool used internally at Google to track bugs and feature requests during product development. It is available outside of Google for use by external public and partner users who need to collaborate with Google teams on specific projects. You can learn more here [2].
[1] - https://issuetracker.google.com
[2] - https://developers.google.com/issue-tracker/
The Google Maps API docs as well as all questions I have found on Stack Overflow all state that departure time must be included to return traffic duration. However, my application requires the use of arrival time and not departure time.
The docs state that one can pass either departure or arrival time, but this is not mentioned in relation to duration_in_traffic. Is it possible to pass arrival time instead of departure time and still receive the duration_in_traffic? Maps itself does this, I don't see a reason for Google's API to be any different.
This is not currently possible, but there is a long-standing feature request to have this feature added. You can star the issue to receive updates and show Google that there is additional interest.
We are considering using Google Places API for a new web application project and I believe we are vastly underestimating the number of requests we would use.
We would be using place search, Maps JavaScript API map load to grab Place IDs from Google as well as Place Autocomplete to help users find the defined location. So my questions are:
Would the Autocomplete be considered a request on every keystroke?
Would if also be a request when we select the suggestion (Places API)
and update to Map?
I have seen that with the premium Plan autocompletes use 0.1 Maps API Credit, while JavaScript API map load is 1 and Places API is 2 credits. Trying to understand how to count before the 150k limit and after
As mentioned in the comment of your question, Google is making some drastic changes to their collective maps API usage rates. Starting June 11th, the new pricing will go into effect.
Would the Autocomplete be considered a request on every keystroke?
As of now, places autocomplete is counted on every keystroke. Starting June 11th, you have the option to switch to session-based billing. They have different pricing rates which can be see in the pricing sheet link. Depending on your application, you'll want to use the option that minimizes API calls. I think if your use case is one time selecting of location by your users then you're better off with billing by keystroke.
Would if also be a request when we select the suggestion (Places API)
and update to Map?
Selecting a suggestion from Places API would not incur an API request (requesting the suggestions does), but updating a google map using the Map API would use an API request.
The 150k daily limit is going away in favor of the new billing rates, so I would suggest you look into that now. There are some free unlimited services still offered, like the Google Maps Embed API. Loading a map using the Embed API is not counted towards any billing (as of now).
I use the Google Directions API for calculating the needed time between 2 places. The API gives me an option departure_time, where I can pass the timestamp of the departure time (or "now"). Then the answer is the duration_in_traffic. This is working really great.
But I need to show the amount of time that the user needs with his car, when he want to be at his target at a specific time.
E.g. the user wants to be in Dortmund at 8pm (20:00). So I need to show him when he should start driving to arrive in time at his desired goal. The API-documentation says, that there is a parameter arrival_time, which does exactly what I need. Unfortunately they say it does only work for public-transport.
But Google maps itself offers the desired functionallity even for cars! As you can see in the screenshot: I said that I want to be in dortmund at 20:00 and google-maps says, I should start driving 'arround 18:30'
So how I can I achieve this with my app? Do I need another API or do I need to pass other parameters?
Here is my current API call:
https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/directions/json?origin=Bielefeld&destination=Dortmund&arrival_time=1460836800&key=AIzaxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
best regards
Michael