Google maps traffic

cc

Sorry if it's old news but just saw that google maps traffic info is live in Ireland. A quick look and it seems like cities and major roads are covered.

-Chris-

That's pretty cool!

Any idea where they get their data from?

Cookie_Monster

-Chris- wrote: »

That's pretty cool!

Any idea where they get their data from?

Council traffic cameras I'd imagine. Looks like roads that would have cameras on the junctions for most of the areas covered (in Dublin at least)

yaledo

-Chris- wrote: »

Any idea where they get their data from?

supposedly a good example of "crowdsourcing" - data is submitted automatically and anonymously by android mobile devices which are using google maps for GPS. Have been looking into this lately.
Same thing carried out separately by tomtom, and seems to have better info for Ireland at present... http://www.tomtom.com/livetraffic/

bkehoe

Down here in Wexford/Waterford area I can't understand where this data, in the detail that is available, is coming from. Is there really that many people submitting traffic data from their Android phones as I know for a fact that there are no sensors or cameras on the roads in sections that Google is indicating are slow moving. And more often than not the segments that indicate slow traffic have no blockages or slowdowns on them in reality.

Cookie_Monster

wasn't it revealed recently that you iphone tracks your location constantly? Maybe Apple sell the data to Google?

snappieT

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

wasn't it revealed recently that you iphone tracks your location constantly? Maybe Apple sell the data to Google?

Much as I'd love that to be the case for more reliable data, the iPhone only stores your location locally, it's never sent to anyone.

Chris_5339762

Much as I like the sound of this feature its total an utter rubbish at 10pm at night. Says the entire of Rathfarnham is jammed up solid even though I just drove through there and it was empty. Methinks they are only updating for rush hours.

Colm R

I would imagine the only source Google could actively use would be where people are using Google Maps on the phone as a sat nav. Hence the data can be sent back to Google in real time.

So whilst there was no traffic in Rathfarman last night, there might one person driving through Rathfarman using google maps, and driving slowly at that, because the dam thing was telling him to turn left where there was no left.


I'm going to test this out sometime, but I'll need to find some geek to help me out. I'm going to find a country road and turn on my sat nav on my android and drive really slow. Then see if Google reports bad traffic in the area.

n97 mini

Where is the data on the RDS TMC coming from? Google likely using that data.

bkehoe

Amazing accuracy of defining this roundabout in Dungarvan. It often claims this roundabout is congested when I look at the map on different days. Yet I have never ever seen it congested in reality.

ThisRegard

Yellow is slow, and don't people drive slowly around roundabouts in comparison to elsewhere so I would say the pic you posted could be classed as accurate.

bkehoe

Well my point was there are no road sensors or cameras that deliver this type of accuracy, especially in that area which I know has no such sensors.

The other problem I have with that is I don't potentially want my satnav whinging at me to accept a reroute just because somebody drove slowly around a roundabout - junctions and roundabouts should be treated with some kind of logic by Google that prevents this.

Looking at the data it's obvious that they've taken the speed limits into account. For example slow traffic shown on a 100KPH section of road approaching a 60KPH limit and exactly at the point where the 60K limit starts the traffic data goes 'Green'. So if they have this kind of detail then surely they can identify roundabouts. I've never had slow around a roundabout displayed on my in-car TMC satnav when driving in the UK or Europe over the last 5 years.

As for the Irish TMC data, RTE are running that and the data is carried on RnaG. However while my car satnav recognizes this it always says that there are no traffic events? Has anyone else with a TMC capable satnav seen any traffic events on the RTE trial?