

Android’s Google Maps App Automatically Tells You How to Beat Traffic - weston
http://singularityhub.com/2011/03/14/androids-google-maps-app-automatically-tells-you-how-to-beat-traffic/

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bdhe
People study the Price of Anarchy [1] to design algorithms to minimize the
deleterious effects of decentralizing decision making to rational and selfish
agents. Traffic flow is a textbook example of selfish behaviour leading to
highly inefficient solutions as compared to a central authority that decides
on each agent's behalf.

It is amazing to see the time come that technology can actually allow us to
centrally decide the action of agents (or at least suggest useful strategies)
that are provably more efficient than any selfish strategy (which is
predicated on the assumption that a large fraction, if not all agents, will go
with the suggested strategy, and not act maliciously).

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_of_anarchy>

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dmboyd
From the look of the article the google maps solution is using lagged traffic
flow data as a basis of directing waves of traffic. I think in practice, if
this had a large uptake rate, by directing cars to areas with low traffic
rates, you would inadvertantly cause traffic jams even though you send "waves"
to other areas in a subsequent time period.

I like the idea of a traffic utopia where cars are directed around in the most
efficient way, However i think that this can only realistically work with open
information sharing, (not competition) between the major players i.e. Garmin,
tomtom etc to increase take up rates.

~~~
joeyespo
> From the look of the article the google maps solution is using lagged
> traffic flow data as a basis of directing waves of traffic.

I wonder if they have plans to use the destination address as another basis as
this gets more traction. As the number of users grow this can help estimate
where traffic _will_ be after time passes. Google can then become that central
authority of ultimately routing cars in selfless directions for maximum
efficiency. It would alleviate traffic simply by showing red on the other
routes, discouraging them. This red is then the predicted heavy traffic. Or
rather: follow the red path and you will _cause_ traffic.

~~~
losvedir
_As the number of users grow this can help estimate where traffic will be
after time passes._

Fascinating, thanks for this insight. It reminds me somewhat of how Google can
predict flu outbreaks better than the CDC based on users' queries.

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LPCRoy
This was my first big launch at Google!

The traffic estimates we eliminated are different that the ones we use in
Route Around Traffic. The old ones (e.g. "Up to XX Hours, XX Minutes in
traffic") were pretty inaccurate and was a picture only of worst case
scenarios, whereas we feel the data used in route around traffic is much more
accurate.

~~~
Adaptive
I've been waiting for this kind of thing to show up on the smartphone mapping
front, nicely done!

~~~
gmac
The TomTom app has done this for a while -- historic data = 'IQ Routes', live
data = 'Traffic'. The live data is by subscription, but not that dear.

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grandalf
As an otherwise happy iPhone 4 user, not being able to get all google apps as
first class citizens on the iPhone is extremely frustrating.

Apple, please step up your game to offer truly competitive products (to gmail,
maps, calendar) or tear down the wall!

~~~
joelhaus
Feel for you, and that's a big reason I chose Android. Ironically, DHH wrote
about why he digs the core iPhone apps here:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2684433>

P.S. Web-based Gmail for mobile apparently got some updates yesterday:

[http://googleappsupdates.blogspot.com/2011/08/gmail-for-
mobi...](http://googleappsupdates.blogspot.com/2011/08/gmail-for-mobile-now-
smoother-with.html)

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mjtokelly
I was excited when this was announced, but I'm not sure what it's actually
doing in practice. On my Android 2.3 phone with up-to-date Maps app, it
_always_ picks the first of three alternate routes, even if the others have
shorter estimated times and no lengths of red.

~~~
nfriedly
I've compared Google Navigation on my Android to Maps on my wife's iPhone, and
sometimes they pick different routes. After checking the traffic, our
conclusion was that mine was choosing the route with less traffic, while hers
was always choosing the most direct route. I think it just re-orders them so
that the chosen route is always first.

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lutorm
Does anyone know if it will now actually _update_ the route if traffic
conditions change? It may pick the best route when you start, but for a multi-
hour drive traffic conditions change and you may need to reroute. I've taken
to regularly looking at the reroute option just to see if another route now
has shorter time, but it really should do this automatically.

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andrewpi
Wasn't it only last month when Google said they were eliminating traffic
estimates due to them being unreliable?

[1] [http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20080043-71/google-maps-
ca...](http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20080043-71/google-maps-cans-traffic-
estimates/))

~~~
cpeterso
The best way to predict the future [traffic] is to create it! :)

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yellowbkpk
Not only does the Navigation app on Android not reroute when traffic
conditions change, but it will _always_ prefer a route with a shorter distance
(over major roads) than a faster route (with traffic).

In my adventures trying to avoid traffic in Minneapolis I've grown very
frustrated with the Navigation app completely ignoring a route that will take
me a little bit out of my way but is 10+ minutes faster due to the shorter
routes having stand-still traffic.

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evanw
Google Maps with traffic has been available on Android since this article was
written (5 months ago).

That being said, I use this pretty much every day on my drive home.

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brimpa
This is really great but I'm not sure this is going to eliminate any of our
major traffic problems.

If you drive to work every morning I can't imagine you're going to pull out
your phone one day hoping to find a different way to work.

Google's update to Navigation only helps the non-commuters when what we really
need is something to unlock bumper-to-bumper commuters.

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nradov
Ho hum. The free TeleNav app built in to Sprint cell phones has done optimal
traffic routing automatically for _years_. And the TeleNav speech synthesis is
far superior, at least on my Samsung Epic. I really have trouble understanding
what the Google Maps app is saying during turn-by-turn directions.

~~~
derobert
Google Maps on Android uses the system TTS. The one that ships with Android
(Pico TTS) is indeed pretty bad, but you can buy better ones in the Market
(e.g., SVOX Classic).

