Navitime starts offering routes with more cool time

On July 1st, NAVITIME Japan began offering ``Routes with Most Cool Time'' on the navigation app ``NAVITIME''.

Even if the route takes longer or is more detour than the usual recommended route, it will display a route that prioritizes a cooler environment throughout the route by limiting outdoor movement and time spent, reducing direct sunlight.

This feature is available to paid members, and the price starts from 500 yen per month.

The company says it will adjust its own route search engine to reduce waiting times on outdoor walking sections, station platforms, and bus stops.

Furthermore, prioritize cool travel by transferring indoors where you can avoid the sun and increasing the amount of time you spend riding on air-conditioned trains and buses.

If it is necessary to pass outdoors, the company will propose a combination of existing ``shade priority routes''.

On the route details screen, you will also be able to check new information such as the direction of travel that is less exposed to sunlight while riding, whether there is a waiting room on the train platform, the location of lightly air-conditioned cars, the heat index, and the amount of ultraviolet rays.

As countermeasures against the summer heat have become a social issue, with new "extremely hot days" in which maximum temperatures exceed 40 degrees Celsius, the company has been providing products such as "shade maps."

This feature aims to avoid the heat not only when walking, but also during the entire journey, including transfers and waiting times.