Contact us: info geoawesomeness. Sign in. Log into your account. Forgot your password? Password recovery. Recover your password. Get help. About us. Beginning in , Google turned to crowdsourcing to improve the accuracy of its traffic predictions. When Android phone users turn on their Google Maps app with GPS location enabled, the phone sends back bits of data, anonymously, to Google that let the company know how fast their cars are moving.
Google Maps continuously combines the data coming in from all the cars on the road and sends it back by way of those colored lines on the traffic layers [source: Barth ].
As more and more drivers use the app, the traffic predictions become more reliable because Google Maps can look at the average speed of cars traveling along the same route without misinterpreting someone's morning coffee stop as a traffic jam. If Google Maps doesn't have enough data to estimate the traffic flow for a particular section of road, that section will appear in gray on the traffic layer [source: Google Help ].
With its acquisition of Waze in , Google added a human element to its traffic calculations. Drivers use the Waze app to report traffic incidents including accidents, disabled vehicles, slowdowns and even speed traps [sources: Palmer , Waze ]. These real-time reports appear as individual points on Google Maps, with small icons representing things like construction signs, crashed cars or speed cameras. Sign up for our Newsletter!
Mobile Newsletter banner close. Mobile Newsletter chat close. Since the start of the Covid pandemic, traffic patterns around the globe have shifted dramatically. Since then, parts of the world have reopened gradually, while others maintain restrictions.
To account for this sudden change, Google Maps recently updated their models to automatically prioritize historical traffic patterns from the last two to four weeks, and deprioritizing patterns from any time before that.
Never miss a story! Stay connected and informed with Mint. Download our App Now!! Google also gets information from local departments of transportation. Moore said that Google's database of historical traffic data allows the app to alert you if traffic is better or worse than it typically is, and how accidents and slowdowns will affect traffic on different roads in different parts of the world.
Last weekend, Google told me that the fastest way home was through New Jersey, even though there was an accident and traffic causing delays. Or 10 minutes to your trip? Or 40 minutes to your trip? Google Maps can even tell when there's a marathon happening in a city because a large group of people is moving faster than people usually move, but there are no cars on the roads.
Moore said that one of the priorities at Google Maps right now is to give people confidence that Google Maps is taking them the best way.
To that end, Google Maps recently added explanations as to why it's routing you a certain way. And if there's no way around a slowdown, or you're on the fastest route even if there is heavy traffic, Google will still tell you that you're going the best way. I noticed this last weekend when Google told me that the fastest way home last weekend was through New Jersey instead of through Westchester County, even though there was an accident and traffic causing delays.
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