Google now predicts the future. Not a Joke.

Ok, so it's only future traffic patterns, but still, pretty damn cool.

In about 30 markets, when you look at Google Maps, and click on the "traffic" button, it will show you current traffic patterns. But look for the button to change the time, and you can change the day of the week and time of day, and Google will tell you what traffic to expect.

Of course, it uses past data to predict based on patterns, so a wreck or other anomaly would not be included, but it would allow you to see whether there are patterns in traffic, and perhaps reroute.

Pretty cool. Now if only this would be incorporated into a car based GPS, and done in real time to calculate the best route. Imagine if Google plotted your route, but knew that a certain area got slow at 5:25 every evening, and your route would take you past there, so it re-routed. That'd be cool.

maps.google.com

No lefts? This could be an awesome Google Maps or GPS feature...

UPS has gotten significant press for their use of software to maximise efficiency in their route planning. (See this New York Times article) The article claims that through efficient route planning, including the elimination or minimization of left hand turns, they have had some astonishing results.

the software helped the company shave 28.5 million miles off its delivery routes, which has resulted in savings of roughly three million gallons of gas and has reduced CO2 emissions by 31,000 metric tons.

At $3 a gallon for fuel, that's $9 million in savings. I wonder what it cost to implement?

How cool would it be if this was a feature in Google Maps or a GPS unit? You enter all the errands you need to do in a day, in any order, and it spits out the most fuel efficient and time efficient options, especially if it took traffic data into account.

Networked GPS units. So cool. And good for the planet?

Real time traffic data is pretty neat. I call my wife sometimes and have her check Google Traffic before deciding which way to drive. That system relies on a very expensive system of embedded sensors, and as such, only has data for a limited amount of area. I also use a GPS frequently, an inexpensive Garmin I bought for my wife 2 years ago but now rely heavily upon. As I navigate the San Francisco bay area, I've often wondered about having real time data available on the GPS, and it looks like that is becoming a reality. Very cool.

TomTom is releasing next month a new unit that will record average speed from other TomTom units, and use that to calculate average speeds on roads at various times of the day or week. That is, it will learn that the 405 on a monday at 8 am is a parking lot, but at 4 am on Sunday, it's smooth sailing. And it will use real data, from real drivers and real cars, to learn this. With that knowledge, it can better calculate your best options.

The Dash Express appears to take this one step further. It not only uses the information collected to better determine averages, it operates in near real time. So if the Dash connected drivers ahead of you are are stuck in traffic, and the data gets sent to the server, that server will send the data to your Dash, and it will reroute you accordingly. If it works, you can imagine this having huge impacts. If everyone had this, it could make our entire highway system more efficient. That could have positive environmental benefits.

As a side note, I could imagine this becoming a business school example of the success or failure of a product dependent on the "Network Effect". Imagine being the first person to buy a fax machine. It doesn't become useful until several or many others have it. I wonder how many Dash users are needed before it becomes truly effective?