Chinese digital map provider Petal Maps has released a new version that adds new features designed to give pedestrians the same advanced features as are beginning to appear in advanced driving systems in cars.

New features include AR walking navigation, favourite location icons, an improved navigation interface, and support for Android and iOS downloads.

Petal Maps is designed as a way for smart device users to explore their world. The app covers more than 160 countries/regions, and reaches a global user base of over 20 million.

According to Petal Maps, walking-based navigation suffers from the “last kilometre” issue. Even when the location and direction are displayed in traditional navigation apps, most users will still struggle to correctly orient themselves when encountering intricate networks of lanes and alleys.

Petal Maps hopes to address this drawback by introducing AR technology into its navigation feature. This uses the mobile camera as a sensor, and overlays the navigation instructions on the real world environment, with the help of smart visual recognition technology.

Features like panoramic navigation, and guided directions are designed to bridge the divide between real world settings and virtual maps.

Petal Maps is compatible with Android and iOS mobile operating Systems.