Android News
Google Maps adding traffic data, crowdsourcing in select cities
August 26, 2009 | by Andrew Kameka
Google, Travel
Google has announced that it is taking live information from GPS-enabled mobile phones running Google Maps to provide a new map layer with traffic data. The practice, a form of “crowdsourcing,” uses GPS location and motorist speed to determine traffic flow on major roadways, enabling Google to gather enough data to show users when congestion may cause delays on their commute.
Multiplatform application Waze employs a similar concept to gather user data and deliver real-time traffic information on a map. Like Waze, Google Maps is designed to gather information from users and provide data that can help make a more-informed decision about which route or roadway to drive. The feature comes pre-installed on the mytouch 3G and Palm Pre, but not on the iPhone. It allows Google to “expand our traffic layer to cover all U.S. highways and arterials when data is available.”
Google is only implementing the expanded traffic data in select cities, so don’t be surprised if you don’t see an updated Maps app with traffic information. At the moment, the select cities are Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Seattle.
And before the Big Brother Watchdog coalition flames the comment section (for very understandable reasons), the data is completely anonymous, according to Google. The entire statement regarding privacy concerns is as follows:
We only use anonymous speed and location information to calculate traffic conditions, and only do so when you have chosen to enable location services on your phone. We use our scale to provide further privacy protection: When a lot of people are reporting data from the same area, we combine their data together to make it hard to tell one phone from another. Even though the vehicle carrying a phone is anonymous, we don’t want anybody to be able to find out where that anonymous vehicle came from or where it went — so we find the start and end points of every trip and permanently delete that data so that even Google ceases to have access to it. We take the privacy concerns related to user location data seriously, and have worked hard to protect the privacy of users who share this data — but we still understand that not everybody will want to participate. If you’d like to stop your phone from sending anonymous location data back to Google, you can find opt-out instructions here.
I think we will see this data show up in a TomTom app soon.
It sounds interesting but I'm not entirely sure how they manage to deduct traffic flow from the data they collect. I mean, for a given road, data would include cyclists, motorcyclists, people on the bus? I'm sure there's a way to calculate this but before using it, I'd like to see how they are accounting for all this stuff.
According to ArsTechnica, the "select cities" are Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, and New York. Might want to add that to the OP.
Thanks EdC @Taylor, do you mean this specific data or TomTom will have its own live traffic information? @Natalie, On highways that probably wont be a problem because there aren't buses or cyclists in most cities. But on the major roadways that have stoplights, that could be an issue. I'd imagine they can separate cyclists/bus passengers based on speed of travel and frequency of stops to compare against motorists.
Portland, OR has the crowdsourcing data as well.
I have the G1 with google maps 3.1.2 (#3182) and I commute in Seattle. I use map traffic every day, I see the enhanced traffic data on my PC browser but not in Google maps in the G1. It apparently works on the wife’s MyTouch but I’m a no go. Is there no way to add this to the G1?
There is a more up to date and accurate application on the android market for the seattle market called "Seattle Traffic" It is in Beta release right now, so it requires a registration so that you consent to give the data but its all anonymous.
Hi all–especially Natalie. Apparently this is being rolled out in Minneapolis now as well, but the funny thing is that it DOES have some bugs to be worked out. More info here: http://www.startribune.com/blogs/55411382.html?el…
That's a good picture lol Seems like the system still needs tweaking, which really is expected anyway. They have picked big cities and I understand why but with the level of congestion in NYC for example, a cyclist could end up going quicker than a car, and a bus isn't likely to make more stops than a car, so I think they will need a lot of tweaking to be able to differentiate the data. Still, it's exciting and I hope they roll it out in London soon so I can check the data for my street and have fun checking it through the window!
On my MyTouch I keep getting the error "Low on Memory" and then the traffic option closes. Some bugs to sort out. Now if only they could like these new traffic updates to my GPS – I will be all set. Or if Garmin released an Android GPS app before others do (Goole anyone) – that would be best. Working in Albany as well.
On my MyTouch I keep getting the error "Low on Memory" and then the traffic option closes. Some bugs to sort out. Now if only they could link these new traffic updates to my GPS – I will be all set. Or if Garmin released an Android GPS app before others do (Goole anyone) – that would be best.