Google Maps Gets Smarter: Crowdsources Live Traffic Data
readwrite.com/2009/08/25/google_maps_gets_smarter_crowdsources_traffic_data
From the page
Saved with the link. Notes from 2007 to 2016 are mostly the page's own words, so this is probably an excerpt.
Google today announced that Google Maps can now display live traffic data for more roads. Until now, Google only showed data from major highways. That data came directly from local highway authorities, but now, Google will also tap into data it receives from GPS-enabled phones that use Google Maps with the My Location feature. As users move around a city, Google can see how well traffic is flowing along any road and will update its live traffic data accordingly.
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We actually noticed that Google started to display more traffic data for these roads a few weeks ago, but Google only described the specifics of this new program in a blog post today. To send data to Google, which is anonymized, users only have to open Google Maps on their Android phone (like the T-Mobile MyTouch 3G) or Palm Pre (we are still trying to figure out if BlackBerry and Symbian users can contribute as well). For now, the iPhone's Maps application doesn't support traffic crowdsourcing. If you don't want your phone's location to be tracked with My Location anymore, Google offers an easy way to opt out.
Google is obviously aware of the potential privacy issues involved here, but according to Dave Barth, the product manager for Google Maps, Google will "find the start and end points of every trip and permanently delete that data so that even Google ceases to have access to it." This way, nobody can find out where a car actually came from.
According to Google, enough users use these phones to make this project feasible. In my experience however, the data for these arterial roads isn't quite as trustworthy as the data for highways.
Overall, though, this is a great project and the more users are aware of it, the better the data will become. However, it is also worth noting that some GPS manufacturers have been using data from their users' GPS systems to crowdsource traffic data for years, though chances are that Google will be able to recruit more users and hence create a better experience for its users.
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