eli5 – How do applications like Google Maps and Apple Maps know when there is a traffic jam? Where does the information come from?
In: Technology
All kinds of sources.
In the UK, and most countries, there are traffic monitoring systems on the roads, information is collated from ordinary people (e.g. mobile phone locations, and even satnav device/apps that tell a central company their current position/speed), and tied in with information on roadworks, closures, police incidents, etc.
This is often then available as TMC information to the general public, pulled into everything from digital signage on motorway stations (to let you know there’s delays on that road and it’s better to wait, etc.) to the online map websites, to the satnav company’s data feeds, to public radio (TMC-RDS) which your car radio can use to “switch” your music briefly to the traffic channel for an announcement if there’s something in your area (many older car radio still have “traffic” or “TA” settings to switch to this channel if there’s an announcement, and it’s broadcast usually on a strong FM radio station that also carries normal radio the rest of the time).
It helps the traffic management system work, a little like an air traffic control really, your satnav detects and is able to route around traffic on your path, and there’s a ton of statistics and metrics for town-planners, utility suppliers, cellular networks, road maintainers, etc. on how best to plan their expansions based on traffic volumes, busy times of day, vehicle types, etc. etc.
Everything is data nowadays, and that data is used to make even more data, and that data used to decide how to use other data.
My CoPilot app on my phone, for instance, lets me send my current speed/position to the company, who – with millions of customers – then has a good map of where traffic is slow or static. Which they then use to tell me that there’s a traffic jam ahead.
That app replaces my old TomTom device which has TMC-RDS and would tune in (via its own aerial) to the digital traffic update accompanying the radio station (Classic FM in the UK, I believe) and receive a constant rolling broadcast of what major roads are busy and should be avoided, and it would route around them.
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