One of Waze’s main strengths is information about traffic and crowded areas that help users avoid these roads. The secret, as everyone knows, lies in the huge community of users that inform the platform. Now, this information will also be exploited by the authorities who will be able to use drones to monitor situations.
Waze for Cities has started
Authorities can also use Waze data to identify the busiest points in a given area, and ultimately look for more efficient ways to improve traffic conditions. This is exactly that Dominican government Plans to do as part of a partnership with the company owned by Google.
Waze for Cities will provide local authorities with access to real-time incident reports and traffic data precisely to help them determine where congestion usually occurs. The government already has a very ambitious plan in mind to solve traffic jams with Waze data.
The partnership will allow for real-time traffic monitoring, and authorities say they will then be able to deploy self-driving drones at major intersections, specifically to collect more data. The drones will analyze traffic patterns, check Waze data and provide authorities with accurate statistics to help find the best way to solve congestion.
User cooperation is worth a lot of money
The first feature of Waze is its crowdsourcing engine. Users can submit traffic reports, including about traffic jams, potholes, pedestrians, broken traffic lights, vehicles parked on the road and other hazards (of course, as well as about speed cameras).
Based on these reports, Waze generates warnings that are issued to other drivers whose routes pass through the specified locations. In this way, the app makes each trip more predictable, giving drivers more time to slow down if needed.
Finally, Waze determines the impact of each warning on traffic, calculates the slowdown and looks for alternative ways to reduce the time to reach the configured destination.
As such, this The platform is at the forefront of crowdsourcing traffic dataOther browser applications have also tried to integrate a similar component into their programs, but failed.
Apple, for example, Also introduces the Traffic Information System on Apple MapsHowever, this function has not yet gained traction. Not only is the system available in limited markets, it's also used sporadically, with reports of missing the map 9 out of 10 times.
On the other hand, Waze is widely used all over the world, so its users help the community to stay informed about what is happening on the road. And for this very reason The Dominican government cares about the data, and Waze users also contribute it With an insane amount of information, you communicate real-time traffic conditions.
Are drones the "patrol cars" of the future?
On paper, this ambitious plan to install drones at intersections sounds fantastic, but only time will tell if the strategy will ultimately bear fruit.
Continuing to take small steps may be the best option at this point, as simply sending a police officer to a busy intersection can help resolve traffic jams more quickly and efficiently.
“Writer. Analyst. Avid travel maven. Devoted twitter guru. Unapologetic pop culture expert. General zombie enthusiast.”
