In the past few months, Google Maps has received a lot of features one might consider superfluous. But, time and again, Google has updated Maps with some features that legitimately make the experience better. Starting today, Google Maps users in some regions will be alerted if their cab deviates from the standard navigation path. The feature is a boon for anyone travelling in new places as it also ensures that the driver doesn't try to eke out more fare out of you by taking a longer route. According to Google's blog post:

Now, after searching for your destination and getting directions, you can enable this experience by selecting the “Stay safer” and “Get off-route alerts” option. If your driver deviates more than 0.5KM from the Google Maps suggested route, your phone will buzz with a prominent notification, and you can tap it to see where you are compared to the original route. Then, you can also choose to share your live trip with friends and family directly from that screen so they know you are off route and can keep track of your journey, and take appropriate action, if required.

The new alerts in Google Maps will send an alert to your phone every time your vehicle deviates from the intended course by 500 meters. The feature should also come in handy when you're driving on your own as it doesn't automatically reroute the directions. To get started, start Google Maps' navigation feature as you would regularly. Tap on the 'stay safer' button at the bottom and tap on ' get off route' alerts. Should your trip deviate by more than 500m, you'll receive a push notification on your device telling you about it. You then have the option to share your live location with a contact of your choice. Conversely, the contact also gets the option to share their live location with you. The off-route feature in Google Maps is currently only available only in India for now and should expand to other locations in the coming weeks.