Jump to Content
Maps & Geospatial

One Day in at Google I/O

May 19, 2016
Ken Hoetmer

Product Manager, Google Maps APIs

Day 1 done! We had a great first day at Google I/O—more than 800 developers visited our Geo sandbox to check out apps, play with 360 degree cameras and most importantly, chat with our engineers, product managers, and developer advocates about the apps they’re building.

https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-cloudblog-publish/images/WByFX67eTumBkNdIvGv3VYwbCmhcLlYcl8BiNnHNdL.max-1600x1600.jpg

The Geo sandbox features Sugarbear, a 1959 PD-4104 General Motors Coach that measures 35’ long by 8’ wide with a diesel engine outfitted for biodiesel. Sugarbear made an epic trip across the USA after last year’s I/O and we’ve brought her back this year for more demo fun. You can engage with interactive maps experiences and check out customer applications inside the bus. Climb Yosemite's El Capitan, calculate your solar potential with Project Sunroof, and see how Nest and the Environmental Defense Fund use location data to make our lives better. Sugarbear also features Google Maps APIs customers Trucker Path, Zendrive, Postmates, GTX Corp and Vagabond.

https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-cloudblog-publish/images/gjji1W3gNw70Q0hukI3GVeOs4s_7U6hClfPKvea0ck3.max-600x600.JPEG

The Google I/O event shuttle buses are also being tracked and visualized in real time by an app we built using Firebase and Google Maps APIs. Within the Geo sandbox you can check out the app on the big screen and chat with the developers about how it works on the inside (hint: ask for Brett).

Geo also hosted one session yesterday: Location and Proximity Superpowers: Eddystone + Google Beacon Platform and we have several additional sessions on Thursday and Friday, including Understand your Place in this world and Building geo services that scale.

https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-cloudblog-publish/images/BmL6G9aSCTayncVXnOvAhniNgOmS0BqUll1CBJBUu1.max-1600x1600.jpg

Finally, don’t forget about our office hours—scheduled for Thursday, May 19 at 4pm. We’ll be in the tent for an hour...bring your Maps and Location questions for our Product Managers and Developer Advocates.

Posted in