You have probably heard of the “Sharing Economy”.
It is best illustrated by Uber, a ride-sharing app that connects drivers with commuters, and Air B&B, a platform where home owners connect with travellers by renting out spare rooms.
Google Traffic has finally launched in Egypt reads a much repeated headline in the Egyptian blogosphere. Stories appeared in Primemag and Egyptian Streets.[1] But how does it work?
Google crowd sources its traffic data. Smartphones with Google Maps installed send anonymous bits of data back to Google describing how fast they are moving. These bits of data are combined across multiple users, and stored over time. This creates a historic database of traffic, and a model of present time traffic.[2]