Google Offering Live Traffic Maps via Cell Phones

Kranfer writes "Reuters is covering the newest offering from Google: real-time traffic mapping on your cell phone. Now you can check how the traffic is ahead of you, of course as long as you don't cause the traffic incident yourself by checking the local issues on your cell phone while driving. Point your cell phone browser to http://google.com/gmm to get your local traffic maps if you live within one of the 30 U.S. cities where this is available."

I don't like this

Normally I am supportive of google and their endeavors . . . but I would argue that doing anything to *encourage* someone to be on their phone while driving wouldn't fall under the mantra 'Dont be evil'. It's bad enough people are talking and text messaging, but giving those retards who can't drive already an incentive to be less attentive . . .

You KNOW the times it'll be most hit is when people are stuck in traffic, which is when they should be most attentive to the road, not to their toys.

Bleh to this.

Re:I don't like this

Similar, but not the same. Navigational tools have hardware designed for that purpose. They are made with few buttons that can relay directions with the least amount of distraction. Cell phones generally aren't made this way since for some reason in the last 5 years they are to be the all-in-one wonder device (rather than a phone...). It means people will spend more time fiddling with the devices than they have any right to while driving a machine that can easily take lives. Even if there were 'hands-free' options created, I no more want some doof who's easily distracted using his phone than I want my doctor talking on his phone with a hands free kit while operating on me.

Radios aren't the same as they are passive devices (except for those ADD types who can't leave the dial alone, and in that case, they are just as bad . .not a justification for something that is worse to be 'ok').

If it takes your eyes off the road, it is bad. Plain and simple. Live traffic updates on a cell phone is just about guaranteed to do this.

Re:I don't like this

Sure, there are similarities and differences between using a cell vs a radio, but I believe that the current cell implementation is much, much worse.

Similarities, people can be distracted while fiddling with cells and radios. More so with changing a CD than changing the station. But it pretty much stops there.

Cell phone conversations while driving seem to be increasing and the radio is pretty much a constant. Cell phone users while driving often appear (and statistically are similar) to drunk drivers. Actually, they drive worse because drunk drivers are more careful because they are scared of being caught. They often drive below the speed limit and/or speed of traffic. They make erratic and impulsive turns. They don't stay in their lanes. They are more engaged in their conversation than driving. The list goes on.

I would bet that my cell phone driver vs drunk driver detection skills have a ratio of about 10:1 probably closer to 50:1.

Now, with the new Google offering. Close but no cigar.

I've been talking about a new p2p user contributed realtime traffic, police, roadblock, etc monitoring system with a good UI that "just works".

To me, that would be excellent, and will happen. Kinda like the CBs of yesteryear, but more 2006ish.

Re:I don't like this

Personally, I would use this to check out my route BEFORE getting in the car, as that's when I'd need to know which route to take. Putting it on a cell phone is just handy because terminals aren't always available.

I am curious why they don't have a "show traffic" option on their normal web-based interface, though... you'd think it would be pretty wildly popular with people about to leave to/from work.

Re:I agree with that

Are you kidding? Just wait for the story to appear on Slashdot regarding the update frequency of this service:

"I was driving along checking traffic on my cell phone, rear-ended someone in front of me, and my accident showed up on Google in just X minutes!"

Re:I don't like this

Seeing as though both Windows Live Local [live.com] (JavaScript) and Yahoo! Maps Beta [yahoo.com] (Flash) already let you view live traffic on the web, I'd guess it's only a matter of time before Google adds traffic as an option to their full-scale mapping app.

Re:I don't like this

You don't necessarily have to be on the phone while driving, you could be a passenger. You could check it before leaving for work/home you could check it while at the gas station en-route.

Yes people will likely abuse it, like they abuse other tools. Complaining about useful tools. that could be abused is irritating and pointless.

Maybe they should shutdown their search engine too, I heard you can search for porno, bomb making materials, drug recipes, and lots of other naughty stuff. Heck maybe they should shut down the whole Internet because you KNOW people use it to steal credit card numbers, send spam and exploit children.

Short sighted, close minded people who shun new technology really drive me crazy, mainly because this knee jerk mentality is most often associated with the politicians, and lobbyists.

Oh well... My little comment and opinion won't change anything, but at least I got it off my chest.

BtW... The mobile maps application seems pretty slick in the few minutes I played with it (sitting at the safety of my desk). I am looking forward to some real word trials.

-MS2K

Windows mobile?

I'm running Windows Mobile 5.0, and I get "Google Maps may not work on on your cell phone. If you'd still like to try, download Google Maps for a high end phone or a mainstream phone."(US/Canada)

If this thing's not going to work on Windows Mobile 5.0, I'm not sure for whom it's intended.

Re:Windows mobile?

Can Windows Mobile handle J2ME?
Not out of the box, but you can get a J2ME engine from IBM that supports several combinations of OS/Hardware: IBM WEME [ibm.com]

There's a few other JVMs for WM out there, i.e Mysaifu.

Great, just great

First we have evidence that cell users are as bad as drunk drivers [slashdot.org] yet now we want these same people to use their 2"X2" cell phone screen to look at a map of their location to see if there is a traffic jam ahead.

Wonderful.

Re:Great, just great

In NYC there are at least 2 AM stations that broadcast traffic reports every 10 minutes (880, 1010). My father's been listening to them since before I was born. This is far safer and probaby even easier than trying to bring it up on your cell. Plus they tell you what's going to be happening in the near future, like typical rush-hour traffic jams and construction.

There are other options, so stay off the cell.

Re:Great, just great

And there you have it. You can already get this information via the radio in most metropolitan markets, so what's the point? Unless you're Speed Racer, real-time traffic updates aren't going to be of much use. And here's a little point to consider: where are they getting the traffic information from? Answer: the same sources that provide it to the radio and TV stations. Unless Google is going to build its own traffic sensing network (and don't put it past them), their data is only going to be as good as the last update you would get from the traffic reporting agencies anyway. Let's face it, when an accident happens, even with all the people who own mobile phones, how long does it take before it's reported to the traffic monitors? ANd even then, how many times have you heard reports of an accident that have long been over and traffic is flowing again, despite the traffic report saying that things are still backed up? Nope, this is just Google pushing the limits of what they should be doing to try and establish themselves in another niche market.

Good Idea?

I think I may have recently read somewhere that cellphones may be responsible for more accidents than Drunk Driving. So, why would would we add an interactive app to cell phones, when that app may only be useful when you are driving?

Palm no go

Note: Maps does not currently work with Nextel, T-Mobile USA or BREW-enabled phones (e.g. Verizon, Alltel, U.S. Cellular), or Palm devices.

Doesn't work on my Treo 650. This is made for small cell phone people, who are different than us big cell phone people. I hope they choke on their tiny lozenge sized phones.

Treo 650

Here's what I see:

Google Maps

Sorry, Google Maps does not work on your Palm Treo-650.

I figured I'd use it before heading out on the road to find the best way to get somewhere, NOT while driving. That'd just be foolish.

Not real-time in nature

I'm concerned about my privacy. Are your satellite images real-time?
We understand your privacy concerns and can assure you that the satellite images are taken from a variety of commercial and public resources and are not real-time in nature. The images that Google Maps displays are no different from what can be seen by anyone who flies over or drives by a specific geographic location.

Whew! For a minute there I thought I saw black helicopters in my rear-view mirror soon after I searched Google traffic to go get a loaf of bread.

Which US Providers?

Note: Maps does not currently work with Nextel, T-Mobile USA or BREW-enabled phones (e.g. Verizon, Alltel, U.S. Cellular), or Palm devices.

So what providers do work? The only ones I can think of are Cingular and Sprint.

Works for me...

i'm on sprint, and this works like a charm. the cell-while-you-drive concern is legit, but no more dangerous than any GPS system, IMHO. personally, i'm going to use it when i pull into that gas station and purposefully DON'T ask for directions. because now i don't have to. the ultimate justifier! my wife has no leg to stand on anymore.

CRASH!

Wait... is that my car? Hey look! I can see myself crashing!

Sorry.

pizza?

What's with google and having pizza in all their mapping services... ... I say this while eating a slice of pizza at IBM ... :-)

tom

the interactive demo...

Doesn't work, So i guess google forgot to pay their bill. Seriously, it's a fake java cell phone that says that you don't have service. It's just like real life!

Come on

- Offer this on the web.
- Get the destination from my Google Calendar
- Calculate the time of travel to my destination. Factor in traffic and construction.
- Tell me when I need to leave in order to arrive on time
- Tell me alternate routes to take based on which one is fastest right now
- Message me on my phone when it's time to leave.

You have all the information. Put it together into something helpful.

Data plan required

Data plan is required - I'm not paying the rip-off fees for that. If I want to check traffic conditions and speed maps I simply go on http://www.511.org/ [511.org] (In the SF Bay Area) and check the maps before I leave work. If I'm really desperate and none of the local radio stations are of any help, I just call 511 and get the same info as on the website.

Requires Java :(

I had too many slowness problems using java on my phone that I had uninstall it.
A simple html based page would have been much better.

Will wait and see what Windows Live Local and Yahoo Maps will cookup. Maybe they will have a more workable product.

Google's Beef with The Treo 650?

Can anyone tell me why *NONE* of the google apps work with the Palm Treo?

to the Hammer maker, everything looks like a nail

PLUS, in many countries (and should be everywhere) using a phone while driving is just ILLEGAL.

Why, oh why, Google?

It is just that you people never leave the 'Plex and therefore have no idea what happens on the road with dorks yakking on the phone and crashing into the guy ahead of them?

Or is it plain ol' Slashdot Front Page Whoring? Suspect the latter [pleon.it]

Which Cities ???

Google refuses to list the areas where this is available. In their Help page, it says to find out where its available, go to that location and tell it to 'Show Traffic Info', and it will tell if you if it's not available...

How helpful! Especially since their dang fake cell phone demo that they make you go to doesn't even seem to work correctly, so I cant even tell.

Anyone have a list of cities where this is available?

Blackberry Support

For all of you complaining, it works great on my Blackberry 7130e with EVDO. I'm a long time user of Google Local (this is just the upgrade) on the device, and this adds some much needed features like:

*Favorites -- now I don't have to type my home address in everytime I want to map from my house to somewhere else
*Details about locations - how long is that place open? (only works with some places, none of which I can find yet)
*Live traffic -- we'll see how well it actually works. Keep in mind, I know the interstate is jammed between here and there at rush hour. There's generally no way around it. Simply providing traffic info for the big interstates doesn't really help me out. But, it is a step in the right direction. Hopefully soon, we'll allow the devices to make intelligent decisions based on traffic patterns.

Screenshots on a 9500

Just for the sake of curiousity (and karma whoring) I took a couple of screenshots [ter.gld.dk] on my Nokia 9500.

No workie

"Sorry, Google Maps does not work on your LG C1300"

Feh. I need a real phone.

- Necron69

Neat, but SLOW

I'll stick with my arrangment [spiceware.org] of the Mobile Houston Real-Time Traffic Map [houstontranstar.org] that I made for my RAZR because the original layout requires you to scroll up/down to view the map on the RAZR's small display.

For some reason my RAZR needed a WML page loaded before the HTML page. I also made arrangements for the close-ups of the different areas. All of which can be found
here [spiceware.org]

Spoof from a computer?

How do I spoof the system so I can get this information from my computer before I leave the office?

map loading is way too slow now

I have a blackberry 7130 from Verizon that i download the Google maps app on. I use it for tracking weird NJ locations and directions on the fly. Now my map load take too long, and its not worth waiting for the satalitte view, because its just never seems to fully load. I'll probably forget what the yellow green and red lines mean in a week, but i will remember that now my google maps loads way to slow, effectively making it useless when i am out on the road to get my maps and get them fast. Oh well.

Convert to TMC data would be nice.

It would be interesting if this data can be downloaded on a mobile and converted to TMC data (Traffic Messaging Channel) and for it to be overlayed on GPS maps without needing a traffic subscription or a TMC FM module.

Non-mobile version

Does anyone know if this is available on the standard maps.google.com page or just for google mobile? It would be nice to check traffic conditions before leaving home or work and plan my route accordingly. No need to be playing with my cell phone while driving.

different routing algorithms

While I understad people's comcerns about using this application while driving, I personally love this. I have already used Google's Mobile Local application many times to find directions and alternative routes, but they never had traffic information. I routinely drive from Stamford, CT to Manhattan after work around rush hour times, and the problem with looking up traffic information before I leave is that by the time I get close to NYC, the information is outdated. I will definately be using this application to determine which of two main routes to take. That being said, I noticed that the same driving direction query on maps.google.com and their new application yeilded very different routes. Has anyone else noticed this?

Unlimited GPRS

Awesome! I have started really using the unlimited GPRS plan from my provider, if you're paying for 5M or similar, it's about $5USD/mo more to go unlimited and you get free text/picture msgs (not that i use the pictures) with my provider.

T-mobile works for me...

Interesting that their faq page says "Google Maps doesn't work with Nextel, T-Mobile USA or BREW-enabled phones"

I installed it on my Nokia N90 that I have through t-mobile with their unlimited GPRS/EDGE plan and it works just fine.

Been doing this for years

I've been doing this for years on my Nokia 9300. In Holland real-time traffic maps are provided by the road club (ANWB). The pages are huge and overfilled with ads and stuff. I scrape the maps off the site with a PHP script, crop exactly the part I need (I have some standard routes) so the map and text information fits on the screen nicely.

The 9300 is in a cradle (not a lame one against the windshield) and the php page auto refreshes every five minutes so it's all quite safe. Saves me a lot of hassle because I know when things are bad enough to take an alternative route and when not.

Interesting thing is that no-one I've ever shown it to was really impressed or interested. Guess I should've shown it to Google ;)

X.

Google Maps on phone rules! But 1.3.0 is buggy...

The greatest app to enter my life in the last 5 years is Google Maps on my recently-acquired T-Mobile SDA phone.

For the $30/mo I pay for T-Mo's unlimited GPRS/EDGE + T-Mo Hotspot access, I have found my way to too many locations using Google Maps to count.

Now that they've added traffic-density functionality, my drive can only get better... ...If only the "Show traffic" function (the "#" key) didn't peg the CPU and lock up the app. :(

Other than that, the app is great and I love Google.

GPS Functions, etc

Combine this with an auto-routing GPS and you'll be all set. Your phone/pda can automatically route you around heavy traffic. This has environmental consequences, too. If we could all be directed in such a way that minimizes traffic bottlenecks, we'll use a lot less fuel.

Re:Data Rates and the need for true Wireless inter

I'm all for optimization, but get a real data plan. I pay $40 a month for unlimited. It is a shame there aren't more data options. Give it time.

Re:Data Rates and the need for true Wireless inter

I don't know if T-Mobile is in Canada yet, but here in the States, they offer all-you-can-eat data for $30, over GPRS/EDGE and at their Hotspot locations (Starbucks, Borders, etc.. I hardly ever use their Hotspots though; EDGE is good enough for me). I've been pretty happy with them.