How does Google Maps know how long your journey will take?
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Loading... - Nicky Jerry
- 18 Jan 2021
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Google Maps is now the go-to navigation app for most people, replacing traditional sat nav as you just open it up on your phone, attach it to a holder and off you go.
The app has evolved in recent years - gone are the days of having to download Google Earth just to get a satellite view of your favourite cities.
Now you can select your destination and Google will tell you how to get there and how long it will take.
But how exactly does Google know how long a journey will take? The Manchester Evening News found out .
Well it's actually a combination of things, since 2011 Google has used its routing algorithms which has knowledge of current and historical traffic to select the fastest route and it will route you around traffic.
Accurate traffic speeds are calculated using data that Google collects from its Google Maps Navigation users and there is more than 35 million miles driven by Navigation users every day.
Google is able to do this because all iPhones that have Google Maps open and Android phones that have location services turned on send anonymous bits of data back to Google.
This is then pieced together and sent back to you. Of course, the more built up the area, the more accurate the results will be as more drivers drive on that road.
This means it can predict how traffic works each and every day, up to a point (traffic is inherently unpredictable), but it's not perfect (as you've probably found out in the past) as knowing exactly what the traffic will do is like predicting the future, and technology can't do that just yet.
Traffic information is currently available in more than 60 countries worldwide countries, and Google is working to improve the comprehensiveness of this feature by bringing it to more places around the world.
