Google to crowd-source traffic data

Legendary Google impact?
Not surprisingly Google is willing to derivate yet another set of data from its GMaps users. The Mountain View Company was already building a database of Wi-Fi and Cell-iD measurements and is likely to create its own maps with these GPS tracks too. Obviously Google has the scale to gather data from millions of its customers, although a real impact on the market has yet to be seen. This impact will depend on the quality of the data itself and the way Google make it available to drivers. We can essentially identify three use case of traffic information: the first one is before departure and takes place on a PC screen and at that level Google is well positioned to grab a substantial market share moving forward.

The two other use cases are first for daily commuters and second to go to an unknown destination. For these two mobile use cases Google Maps for Mobile is not very well fitted. This application is increasingly becoming multi-purposes (local search, friend finder, traffic) and the user interface not well adapted to usage in a moving vehicle. In comparison, start-up such as Waze or Aha Mobile have developed systems dedicated to commuters and in the case of Aha provides a real in-car experience based on vocal information, preset menus and large icons.

In the third use case, any navigation application with a decent traffic feed beats Google Maps in offering route recalculation based on traffic among all the comfort offered by a proper voice guided, turn-by-turn navigation system.

The only events that would dramatically change the traffic information business would be Google giving out its traffic feed for free or launching its own turn-by-turn navigation application. We are not arrived at that stage today; but tomorrow, who knows…?