Addinsight Traffic Alert App

[koalaboy]

Has anyone tried out the new DPTI app - Addinsight? You get spoken alerts about congestion ahead while you are driving.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EChu_NCEMsU

[bits]

I used it on my Sony z2 android device.
It repeatedly crashed when I tested the voice alert. And I have never had a voice alert from it.
In the end I am unsure how it could give any better info than google maps already does.
I uninstalled it just the other day after finding zero use for it.

[mshagg]

I watched the video when they announced it. It's pretty cool... in theory.

But I have to wonder how likely it is that my phone's Bluetooth is going to be able to connect to a box that is some distance away from my car and that im driving past at 50 odd km/hr? Bluetooth is really only good for about 10 meters of range?

[koalaboy]

Bluetooth is really only good for about 10 meters of range?

Bluetooth iBeacons have a longer range than the classic bluetooth devices you are referring to. There are also different classes of Bluetooth devices that have different power outputs / ranges. When connected to an antenna an iBeacon's range can be extended even further. Can be a 150m+ with a line of sight.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBeacon

[HairyDrumroll]

So, how is this better than Waze?

[Norman]

The fact that most of it is sensor-based, instead of relying on user input.

[koalaboy]

So, how is this better than Waze?

It's complementary to navigation apps such as Waze and Google Maps, not competition. You can run both at the same time. I have never used a navigation app such as Google Maps unless I was going somewhere unfamiliar. I do not believe these navigation apps will tell you anything if you are just driving around without a destination programmed into them. That is why it is different. Obviously only a minority use navigation apps when commuting otherwise we wouldn't have so many people getting stuck in avoidable congestion.

Addinsight collects data from about 15% of the traffic stream. People assume that because there are so many Android devices around that Google must collect a lot of data, but they only collect your data while you have an app like Google Maps running and location services is active. Unless you are an avid user of Google Maps chances are they are not getting a lot of data from your movements. You can log into your Google account to see the data points collected on any specific day. On most days it knows where I live and where I work and nothing in between.
https://www.google.com/maps/timeline

[bits]

I have accurate info from google for the last several years of my life in about 10min intervals.

It is not only sending data when google maps is open etc. It is constantly tracking. Maybe your device has a weird sleep issue that prevents it from waking to track unless the screen is on.

[koalaboy]

Maybe your device has a weird sleep issue that prevents it from waking to track unless the screen is on.

Why would location services need to be on in sleep mode and why is that weird? Every device and user will be different. Some people have location services completely turned off.

[bits]

It is weird because that is not how it was designed.
Google should have data from all Androids that have location turned on, which is the default setting and also requested by many services.

Google which has 70% of all smartphones should have consistent data from the majority of those devices. There is no reason I can see that would mean Add Insight has better real time traffic data than Google has.

Add Insight might be worthwhile if it worked on my device, but I don't really see what it will do which would be better than existing services that appear to do a similar function but better.

[koalaboy]

Agree to disagree. It's not an Android default setting.
http://www.androidcentral.com/understan ... n-tracking

I am not saying Addinsight has more data, but it provides it in a way that may be potentially more user-friendly to many road users. If they navigate to a defined destination for every trip they take then yes, other apps such as Google Maps do it better. I can't speak for the majority, but I never use a navigation app to travel somewhere familiar. For me, Addinsight is a good fit.