If I want to arrive at 5.00pm exactly, it can recognize that there’s going to be more traffic than usual at that time of day and give me a departure time that compensates. Google Maps offers both the ability to specify when you want to leave and, even more interestingly, when you want to arrive, and then uses historical data to estimate your arrival / departure time (depending on which other time you specify). It’s a lot of data to sift through, but it’s surprisingly easy to compare a drive from, say, San Mateo to Monterey at 4.30am on a Sunday versus 4.30pm on a Friday afternoon. This is done by having millions of data points – we’re all reporting our location and transit information as we move around – but also by having a huge dataset of historical traffic information too. They can even indicate how much extra time the accident a mile ahead is going to add to your journey. Starting with driving directions that offered no estimate of how long your journey would actually take, navigational systems have gained enormously in sophistication and it’s astonishing how well they can now route you around traffic and construction.
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