There is a new platform for producing and maintaining live maps in the United States, unveiled recently by waze. This application is the first free provider of driver-generated maps and real-time road information.
At the recently held Where 2.0 conference, a private alpha program for waze’s first mobile application was launched. This mobile application exploits driver-generated data to construct navigable road maps and provides real-time information to commuters on the current traffic, speed traps, street closures, road conditions and more. This application is already a success in Israel and will be open to the general public in the near future.
“While a lot of information is available about road conditions, it doesn’t really help us with our every-morning dilemma – what’s really happening on the roads, how long will our commute take today, and which route is best right now?” commented Noam Bardin, CEO of waze. “waze is a network of drivers who work together to save time – everyone contributes and everyone benefits. By aggregating the status of all connected wazers, such as GPS traces and active reporting of speed traps or road hazards, we can build and share back a real-time or ‘live’ map which reflects the current state of the roads, finds the best route and guides the waze members though it in their daily driving.”
The waze application, running on users’ smartphones, automatically and anonymously sends back GPS points while they are driving. The data thus provided can be used to construct and continuously update the road grid, road changes, driving directions, traffic flow, and more. Traffic jams and other changes in road conditions can also be detected by using aggregated driving speed data. Road problems and a few map inaccuracies can be reported by drivers with a single click on their mobile device. The waze website facilitates more extensive map editing. The waze map platform is going to open APIs soon to allow developers to create other features and applications that influence the waze-generated compilation of live map data.
Israel was the location where waze launched its first mobile application. It has been downloaded by excess of 80,000 commuters and has the distinction of being the fastest-growing navigation application in that market. It took the community less than a year to build the entire navigable map from the ground up, and there was approximately 90 percent coverage of real-time traffic information and the ‘estimated time of arrival’ accuracy was listed at over 85 percent. Tens of thousands of daily commuters in Israel use waze several times a day to receive optimal traffic-aware routing to their destination for free.
Now a decision about ‘which route to take’ will never be a problem for drivers, thanks to the set of features in waze’s mobile application. There are “live” street maps that update with road changes such as road closures and more. waze users who are traveling on the road can communicate instantly with other waze users to provide them real-time traffic information, for both highway and city streets. Traffic and road condition updates are provided in a scrolling format. Information about speed traps, traffic, and other roadside hazards are contributed by drivers. Users are also able to post information directly to Twitter and share real-time photos.
In order to start using this service, drivers have to download this application to their mobile smartphone. Then they are required to activate it on their daily commute and it sends and receives relevant, live map information around their particular location anonymously.
An alpha version of waze’s mobile application has been launched in San Francisco, Chicago and Boston. There are plans to open a public beta in the near future. The application will be available on Windows Mobile, iPhone and Android devices.
Users can visit the waze website and provide their handset and contact information, which lets them sign up for the beta version. Users will be notified by waze as the application becomes available on their device and in their area.