Google's Waze has made available an SDK (software development kit) that stands to not only vastly increase the crowdsourced navigation app's access to real-time data, but also buttress and help create companies with IoT (Internet of Things) business models. Here are the key details of Transport SDK, as reported by the Wall Street Journal:
The Waze Transport SDK lets other companies weave Waze’s mapping, traffic and driver-guidance data more deeply into their own mobile apps. It launched with six partners, including ride-sharing company Lyft Inc., emergency-dispatch technology provider The Genesis Group and JustPark Parking Ltd. of the U.K., whose app matches drivers with free parking spaces.
Lyft said it will use the software to update driver routes in real-time when new riders get into their cars. In the past, drivers had to manually update destinations, taking their attention away from the road.
Genesis Pulse, a unit of The Genesis Group, is launching a new mobile app for ambulance drivers that gives them real-time, turn-by-turn navigation using the new Waze software and accompanying data. Previously, dispatchers relayed route information to ambulance drivers over radios.
The software will add thousands of new drivers into Waze’s traffic and guidance system. Lyft has 315,000 active drivers who spend more time in their cars than the average commuter. Genesis Pulse guides more than 500 emergency vehicles that collectively traveled about 13.2 million miles last year. JustPark has more than half a million users of its parking app.
Like Waze’s 50 million existing users, these new drivers will share their locations passively and anonymously. That means more traffic data for Waze to improve its real-time route suggestions.
Uber isn't on the list of initial launch partners for Transport SDK, for which Waze is offering at no charge. But a Waze executive said talks are ongoing with the world's most popular ridesharing service. In the meantime, Lyft is hoping to get an edge over Uber by using Waze data to provide more efficient service to customers.
But as the list of launch partners reflects, Waze data can be useful for much more than ridesharing applications. On a financial investment basis, the Waze Transport SDK could prove disruptive.
'Routing software has long been around but the usage of it has started to reach the masses, In large part because the real-time data is more available and the software itself less expensive," notes Constellation Research VP and principal analyst Guy Courtin. "Ten years ago you could only really get this with an industry-grade transportation management solution. The business opportunity this opens is very interesting."
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