Maps - Does it Correct Routing for Traffic?

[Stangs55]

Question says it all...does it?

I know that Lexus navigation systems will take a look at live traffic conditions and reroute you according to congestion and accidents. Since the Droid has the ability to do live traffic in the map layer...does anyone know if it takes this information into account when calculating the directions?

 

[Nakagaki]

Question says it all...does it?

I know that Lexus navigation systems will take a look at live traffic conditions and reroute you according to congestion and accidents. Since the Droid has the ability to do live traffic in the map layer...does anyone know if it takes this information into account when calculating the directions?

Probably not, I think we would have heard of it by now.

 

[greg72]

I saw a YouTube review where a guy was able to reroute around traffic but he had to hit a detour button. I don't think it takes into account traffic in the original route calculation. Would be nice and have a feeling it is very possible

 

[johnlgalt]

I remember reading somewhere that the GMaps allows for overlays, which can include live traffic, but whether GMaps will take that overlay into account when routing is a different matter....

 

[TogaLive]

The phone as of now, DOES NOT automatically plot your route based on traffic. However it will show you the traffic ahead of you, and from that you can either adjust your route on screen, or simply take a side road and it will generate a new route from your new position.

 

[Ken Amisraelhai]

Question says it all...does it?

I know that Lexus navigation systems will take a look at live traffic conditions and reroute you according to congestion and accidents. Since the Droid has the ability to do live traffic in the map layer...does anyone know if it takes this information into account when calculating the directions?

I could not find how to do it; I think it is not implemented.

 

[Carl C]

Don't forget guys that this "Google Navigation" is Beta and more improvements are sure to come , Bug Fixes & Maybe better or even new features

 

[stevenfstein]

What do you think - once it is out of beta and is an official product, will they start charging for the service?

Regards.... steve

 

[SlaveUnit]

What do you think - once it is out of beta and is an official product, will they start charging for the service?

Regards.... steve

I doubt it. How many things does Google charge for already? I cant think of any except for other country calling on Google Voice.

 

[gthrift]

What do you think - once it is out of beta and is an official product, will they start charging for the service?

Regards.... steve

I don't think so. Google's primary revenue generating model is based on advertising, so the most likely thing is that the service will remain free but will have ads. Probably not banners or popups or anything like that, but will probably place points of interest in the map that show a McDonald's or something.

That, or since it's Google, it'll probably stay in Beta forever, lol.

 

[michaelk]

If you have used google maps lately with the traffic overlay I think you would rather it NOT yet route based on traffic.
The traffic data is not always very current.

The impression I get is it’s tracking everyone with googlemaps and gps turned on- basically the app sends back info to google (I’m on I-10 going 20mph at mile marker 100). And that’s used to generate the data. Well if you live farther out in the “burbs” where there is less often driven roads it appears there’s not enough people yet driving around with google maps on to generate very current data.

They recently add some of the local highways out by me- I’m about 50 miles from philly and 50 from NYC. And lots of times the highway on googlemaps might be listed as yellow but I hop on and I’m cruising right along.
Once googlemaps on phones with gps gets more ubiquitous then It will be great if it does that. But for now I’m afraid it would have us avoiding roads it thinks are ‘yellow’ or ‘red’ all the time that are really ‘green’.

 

[michaelk]

I don't think so. Google's primary revenue generating model is based on advertising, so the most likely thing is that the service will remain free but will have ads. Probably not banners or popups or anything like that, but will probably place points of interest in the map that show a McDonald's or something.

That, or since it's Google, it'll probably stay in Beta forever, lol.

agreed. maybe they will text you coupons to the mcdonalds...

 

[gthrift]

The way I understand it, Google gets the traffic info two ways. The main way is from state DOT sensors on the interstate that monitor traffic, flow and gathers info such as accidents and construction. That info is monitored by Google and is placed on the maps. The 2nd way is just like you said, its from users that have their GPS info being sent to Google. I'm not sure which devices do it, but let's assume it could be Android phones, iPhones and maybe Blackberries and other devices accessing Google maps with GPS on.

This is speculation, but I while it uses the real time data, it there is probably also some historical data thrown in to the mix as well.

 

[michaelk]

The way I understand it, Google gets the traffic info two ways. The main way is from state DOT sensors on the interstate that monitor traffic, flow and gathers info such as accidents and construction. That info is monitored by Google and is placed on the maps. The 2nd way is just like you said, its from users that have their GPS info being sent to Google. I'm not sure which devices do it, but let's assume it could be Android phones, iPhones and maybe Blackberries and other devices accessing Google maps with GPS on.

....

I beleive you are 100% correct that it's a mix of DOT and hive data. Until recently they only had the MAJOR roads in and around NYC and Philly areas. Then a short time ago they added all the secondary things in and around the cities and the major roads much farther out. My dink highway was never had traffic before nor would i ever expect the DOT to bother monitoring it as it's never congested for more then waiting at one light. So I'm pretty certain the hive populated the data out here and that's the problem. If some numnuts slows down or stops at dunking donuts between 2 waypoints then it seems to get bogged down until someone else comes along to "clear" the route again.

Since it's newer I'd bet they just need to work out the algorithyms and get a crtitical mass built up for it to work great. But for today I specifically do NOT trust the traffic data. It's way too conservative for me to be routing around it. For example- it's now 9 o'clock tonight but if you browse a google map with traffic of NYC it looks like it's almost gridlock with all the yellow and red. Unless the president is in town at the moment that's just not realistic.

I'd be almost certain that it's all the newer google maps apps that feed the hive- android, iphone, winmo, webos, etc. If I wasn't too lazy I'd reinstall on my current winmo phone and read the license- I'm sure its got to be mentioned in there.