How One Mobile App Uses Big Data To Detect Traffic

There is plenty of buzz around the applications of big data, but what about actual applications -- mobile applications that depend on big data?

At the Boston Big Data Festival, which took place at the Microsoft New England Research and Design Center, Knowledgent’s Gerard Dwan talked to the audience about a very popular app that has harnessed the power of big data: Waze.

Waze is GPS software that depends on community involvement. It asks drivers to input their own data around road and traffic conditions, and then quickly analyzes that data to alert other users about changes in conditions and optimal driving routes to avoid traffic. It originated in Israel and is now available in 13 countries.

’They’re actually leveraging the data that they were collecting in order to map out an area and create standard GPS functionality, and [they] inserted the ability to track traffic and give you a better route,’ Dwan explained.

Waze is another example of big data’s real world power of change, and Google bought the app in 2013. It also won the Best Overall Mobile App award at the 2013 Mobile World Congress. Today, Waze is available for download on most mobile devices.

PUBLISHED SEPT. 21, 2015