The inimitable phenomenon known as internal combustion is responsible for many unappealing things that plague the globe. Industrial waste. War. Virtual torrents of angels’ tears. But none is more a challenge to the progress of the human race than the creeping, crawling, abhorrent thing we call roadway traffic. Yes, bumper-to- bumper is in fact the ultimate bane of society, and the engineers at Google Maps have seen their users within the American citizenry rage long enough in contention with slow-going bottlenecks. Those in Mountain View have decided to stir the technological cauldron some more as of late, and have now come out with a new feature for drivers 30+ metropolitan areas looking to get from A to B in as few minutes as possible. Enter, Google Maps traffic prediction.
Mind you, this isn’t the first we’ve seen a technology giant offer such detailed traffic analysis for no charge to the consumer. Only last week Microsoft introduced an AI system atop its Live Maps service, dubbed Clearflow, which, in effect, delivers a similar result.
Though we can’t quantify which of these two newly available choices resides higher than the other on a scale of precision, because, well, it would involve extensive use of high-priced petrol and a good deal of wasted time better spent posting about interesting startups and industry developments on Mashable. But suffice to say that users of online mapping solutions now have an option to lay their loyalties as they wish. And hey, we tech-savvy Americans are all about choice.