Google Maps in India now lets you know when your taxi goes off-route

Riders will receive an alert if the vehicle goes off course by more than 0.5KM.

What you need to know

• Stay Safer alerts you if your auto-rickshaw or taxi goes off course by more than 0.5KM.
• The feature is now available in India for users of the latest version of Google Maps.
• Another feature of Stay Safer allows you to share your live trip if you begin to go off route.

Previously, we reported about Google testing the new Stay Safer feature in Google Maps that alerts you when your taxi goes off course. Today, Google has made it officially available for all users in India using the latest version of Google Maps.

The new feature allows you to enter a destination and click Stay Safer at the bottom of the screen. Once this is done, you can continue using your phone as usual, and if your driver deviates from path more than 0.5KM you'll get an alert.

That should give the driver plenty of wiggle room to avoid traffic and prevent your phone from constantly pinging you on your ride home.

When an alert does pop up, you'll be able to quickly check your exact location, as well as tap "share your live trip" to inform your friends or family where you are. That could be invaluable in an emergency situation, allowing your friends and family to locate you and get help immediately.

During Google's research, it uncovered many people are concerned about safety when using auto-rickshaws or taxis in India, and that can prevent them from traveling. That's why it chose to launch this feature first in India. There is no word on if or when we could see this landing in other countries, but it would be great to see it launch in more areas.

Stay Safer isn't the only India exclusive feature to hit Google Maps recently. When SOS Alerts launched not too long ago, India was the only country to receive flood maps where 20 percent of flood fatalities occur worldwide.

Google Maps: Everything you need to know!