Google Maps now shows you how much toll you have to pay for a trip; here's how it works

If you are planning a road trip, one of the main things you need to remember is that you will be required to pay toll as travel across national highways. Now, this toll is not a standard fee and it varies from route to route. Knowing in advance how much you have to pay on the way really helps while planning a cross country trip, so as you can keep cash handy and/or recharge your FASTag so as you have enough balance.

Google Maps has now come up with a handy update that shows how much toll you have to pay on the way as you navigate from one place to the other. Google explained in post on its community page that this feature will “help make the choice between toll roads and regular roads easier”.

We tried the feature out on iOS and Android and it is live on both. So, how does this work?

Like most other things on Google Maps, this too is quite simple. Suppose you want to drive to Dehradun. Just open up the app on your smartphone and type in your destination. Next, you need to click on ‘Directions’. The very moment you do that, Google Maps will pull up the route from your current location to the destination and show you how long it is going to take you. Additionally, as it displays the route on the map, you will now be able to see additional information that mentions both time and toll amount. The fastest route with the least toll will show up in blue whole the others show up in white.

When you pull up the bottom information panel, you will first see the traffic information followed by tolls. Clicking on ‘Tolls’ you can change the settings of Google Maps to avoid highways, avoid tolls, avoid ferries, etc. All of these can be toggled on or off and Google Maps will reroute you accordingly.

Google Maps shows you all this information before you actually start navigating allowing you to pick the best route that works for you economically and time-wise. For example, avoiding national highways and toll roads will save you money, but it might add a couple of hours to your journey.

Google says that it relied on “trusted information” from local tolling authorities to give you estimated toll fees. “We look at factors like having a toll pass or not, what the day of the week it is, along with how much the toll is expected to cost at the specific time you’ll be crossing it,” Google explained.

Users will also get to see toll prices with or without a toll pass (like FASTag), in certain places prices of toll fees change based on the payment method people use.

Google has said that this new feature is live for nearly 2,000 toll roads across the US, India, Indonesia, and Japan.

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