4 ms·

The bright side of sitting in traffic: Crowdsourcing road congestion data

19 points by peter123 17y ago

brown9-2 17y ago
This is a really neat idea, and it sounds like they tried to cover many conceivable privacy concerns from the get-go... But given the fact that you have to enable this (by running Google Maps) each time you start a car trip, it makes me wonder how much useful data it will actually collect. Also what if you leave Maps open on your phone while you walk around the city? I would imagine that would skew the data as well.
- mrduncan 17y ago
  Also what if you leave Maps open on your phone while you walk around the city? I would imagine that would skew the data as well. It sounded to me like they only show the data if there enough reportings to give them confidence. So, even if someone did leave it on while walking around they would be an outlier in the data and more than likely ignored by Google until they started to fit in again. Also, if you're walking around I'd imagine you're unlikely to be on the road, more likely on a sidewalk which should show up in the data as not quite on the road and therefore less likely to be accurate. I suppose there is also the case of a lot of people walking around on the street, but I'd imagine that traffic isn't moving very fast if there are a lot of people doing that anyway. I for one would love to get my hands on some of this data. My first thought when I saw this was a road-based version of FlightCaster but it could have all sorts of applications. I predict that Google Maps will get a lot better at routing you around congested areas in the future.
param 17y ago
I was driving on CA-46 last week and had 5 mins of driving at 55mph left to get onto I-5. Suddenly, all traffic just stopped. I booted up google maps on my iphone and saw the remaining segment (to I-5) yellow. After a few mins, it had turned to red, and I hadn't moved an inch. It was very impressive to see the data change in such a real time fashion. Of course, it was too late for me.
sachinag 17y ago
Wasn't this the whole point of Dash Navigation? I love how old companies can totally obliterate new startups' differentiation with a quick, single stroke. Now, Google Maps needs to be better integrated with turn-by-turn directions (like Dash was) to make this a real killer.
- ynniv 17y ago
  I was just commenting on that with a friend. Poor Dash, all that VC and no customers. Mixing hardware into your startup isn't easy and brings an extra level of risk. Dash never struck me a particularly good Navigation Device, tho. Would you buy a top notch navigation device with traditional traffic reporting, or a second rate one with fancy traffic that only works in a few cities? When you go to reinvent a market, realize that your goals are to 1) do everything that your competitors do 2) do some things better Just solving for (2) won't help you win.
andyking 17y ago
The people who generate the traffic news bulletins for local radio stations have had this sort of system for years - it's not wrapped up in trendy terms like "crowdsourcing", but it is very similar. They take phone calls from the public about traffic problems, log them all down in a system called Regis and are able to identify trends and blackspots from the years of accumulated data. Now, if the traffic news people could somehow make use of this GMaps data...
AndrewWarner 17y ago
Looks like another app that iPhone can't participate in.
- symesc 17y ago
  Agree. Google +1. Apple -1.
jsares 17y ago
The downside is right now running Latitude slows your phone to a crawl after a few days http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=3453 http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=3453
sil3ntmac 17y ago
Sounds like an idea Seth Godin posted a while back, iirc: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/11/an-iphone-app-t.html http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/11/an-iphone-ap...

19 points by peter123 17y ago

This is a really neat idea, and it sounds like they tried to cover many conceivable privacy concerns from the get-go... But given the fact that you have to enable this (by running Google Maps) each time you start a car trip, it makes me wonder how much useful data it will actually collect. Also what if you leave Maps open on your phone while you walk around the city? I would imagine that would skew the data as well.

mrduncan 17y ago
Also what if you leave Maps open on your phone while you walk around the city? I would imagine that would skew the data as well. It sounded to me like they only show the data if there enough reportings to give them confidence. So, even if someone did leave it on while walking around they would be an outlier in the data and more than likely ignored by Google until they started to fit in again. Also, if you're walking around I'd imagine you're unlikely to be on the road, more likely on a sidewalk which should show up in the data as not quite on the road and therefore less likely to be accurate. I suppose there is also the case of a lot of people walking around on the street, but I'd imagine that traffic isn't moving very fast if there are a lot of people doing that anyway. I for one would love to get my hands on some of this data. My first thought when I saw this was a road-based version of FlightCaster but it could have all sorts of applications. I predict that Google Maps will get a lot better at routing you around congested areas in the future.

param 17y ago

I was driving on CA-46 last week and had 5 mins of driving at 55mph left to get onto I-5. Suddenly, all traffic just stopped. I booted up google maps on my iphone and saw the remaining segment (to I-5) yellow. After a few mins, it had turned to red, and I hadn't moved an inch. It was very impressive to see the data change in such a real time fashion. Of course, it was too late for me.

sachinag 17y ago

Wasn't this the whole point of Dash Navigation? I love how old companies can totally obliterate new startups' differentiation with a quick, single stroke. Now, Google Maps needs to be better integrated with turn-by-turn directions (like Dash was) to make this a real killer.

ynniv 17y ago
I was just commenting on that with a friend. Poor Dash, all that VC and no customers. Mixing hardware into your startup isn't easy and brings an extra level of risk. Dash never struck me a particularly good Navigation Device, tho. Would you buy a top notch navigation device with traditional traffic reporting, or a second rate one with fancy traffic that only works in a few cities? When you go to reinvent a market, realize that your goals are to 1) do everything that your competitors do 2) do some things better Just solving for (2) won't help you win.

andyking 17y ago

The people who generate the traffic news bulletins for local radio stations have had this sort of system for years - it's not wrapped up in trendy terms like "crowdsourcing", but it is very similar. They take phone calls from the public about traffic problems, log them all down in a system called Regis and are able to identify trends and blackspots from the years of accumulated data. Now, if the traffic news people could somehow make use of this GMaps data...

AndrewWarner 17y ago

Looks like another app that iPhone can't participate in.

symesc 17y ago
Agree. Google +1. Apple -1.

jsares 17y ago

The downside is right now running Latitude slows your phone to a crawl after a few days http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=3453 http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=3453

sil3ntmac 17y ago

Sounds like an idea Seth Godin posted a while back, iirc: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/11/an-iphone-app-t.html http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/11/an-iphone-ap...