Google is boosting the capabilities of its Google Maps offering for smartphones and other devices with GPS to improve driving experiences. Among other things, Google is expanding its traffic overlays this week to cover all U.S. highways and roads where user data is available.
Google Traffic Team software engineer Jordan Weitz said the expansion will let users learn about traffic conditions on alternate routes when the traffic looks bad on main highways.
“Now you can see the traffic on many of the roads leading there so you know the best route to take,” Weitz said. “Just zoom in on the city you’re interested in and click the Traffic button in the upper right corner of the map.”
‘Crowdsourcing’
The improvements to Google Maps come in large part through the data that handset users contribute, a process Google likes to call ‘crowdsourcing.’ “This is exactly the kind of technology that we love at Google because it’s so easy for a single person to help out, but can be incredibly powerful when a lot of people use it together,” said Google Maps Product Manager Dave Barth.
When Google combines the user’s speed with the speed of thousands of other users on the road around a city at any given time, it can obtain a pretty good picture of live traffic conditions. “We continuously combine this data and send it back to you for free in the Google Maps traffic layers,” Barth said. “The more people use it, the better it will get.”
Barth also noted that there’s no extra device to plug into the user’s car and no extra software to buy. However, the technology still has a ways to go before it can rival the capabilities of dedicated personal navigation devices, which provide turn-by-turn instructions for the quickest route.
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