How do popular routing gps/phones/mapping web sites update their route information?
And do any phones send back data based on the users actual trip to allow the system to update route information?
What do you mean with "route information"? The map data they use to calculate routes is usually provided by companies Like NavTeq. They provide updates to the data on a regular base.
Concerning data collected by users, TomTom provides so called "IQ routes" which are based on actual traffic data. Meaning when you travel at 5am the system will likely suggest a different route compared to travelling during rush hour.
The required data was collected by the TomTom systems but AFAIK users have to manually upload it to TomTom or at least agree to provide the data when they do an online update of their system.
The two major players in this world are TeleAtlas, a TomTom subsidiary and NavTeq, a Nokia subsidiary.
IMO TomTom/TeleAtlas has the most advanced system. They operate a real-time system for measuring traffic flows, HD traffic. This takes into account data from other HD Traffic users, but also anonymixed data extracted from the GSM network. Now, in addition to the real-time view this provides, TeleAtlas also compiles a statistical average out of this; TomTom sells that as IQ routes.
Now it follows logically that if there's a lot of new traffic across a river, then probably someone built a bridge there ;)
In addition to HD Traffic and IQ Routes, TomTom also allows their users to report map erros and updates with MapShare. For many classes of changes (e.g. one-way roads or blocked roads, or changed roadnames), TomTom can use MapShare to immediately distribute updates for their maps without issuing a full map update. As a TomTom subsidiary, TeleAtlas presumably has access to these reported updates as well.
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I've just made a long car travel and Waze gave me great alerts about the road quality. I'd like to share this info with the oversight authorities. Some of the roads were really bad and Waze informed about the road spots that needed maintenance.
Is it possible to extract the alerts in a route?
Waze has the Waze for Cities program that allows governmental institutions to retrieve the alerts from Waze users. Some cities already use this program to see where potholes are reported most often, to get an idea of where they need to focus on their road repairs. But it's not a plug-and-play system that just gives them that information. There is access to the data feeds and a way to start gathering historical data from that point on, but some of it requires technical knowledge to set it up.
Retrieving your own personal alerts can be done by downloading your Waze data. The downloaded archive contains your most recent alerts and interactions with the system, which might be enough information to share the data with the government(s) in a more "traditional" manner like a contact form or e-mail.
I need to develop an internal application where the user of a source and up to 8 destinations, the best route is drawn on the map and show the distance in km. So based on that mileage the system calculates how much it would cost.
I implemented this using the Google Maps API, but the application was limited to company then we would have to adiquirir a license.
I want to know if the GraphHopper is free to use a company internally.
The GraphHopper routing engine is Open Source under the permissive Apache License and is therefor free to use for anything. You could even integrate it in your products, modify GraphHopper and sell this, without notice to us or contributing back. Although it is encouraged to contribute back so that your feature gets maintained for free by us. Also you can host GraphHopper on your own servers for 'free' and do whatever you want with it.
The GraphHopper Directions API that we host falls under our usage terms and always requires an API key. We decided to make it free for development purposes and Open Source projects, both with a limit of currently 500 queries per day. So, the free usage of the API in a company internally would not be allowed. But there are custom packages possible - see the current pricing here.
I have seen several apps on the market that are allowing users to determine their current network connection speeds. How is this possible, and what might I use to be able to use this functionality? I am querying network types but I am not sure how to determine the current speed of the connections.
Besides the NetworkInformation class that gives you basic information about the connectivity (network available or not, wifi enabled or not) there is no API with the current SDK for determining network speed.
I guess the apps doing this simply create a web request to download some sample files hosted on their website and measure the time it takes, etc.
I am looking for a map application with the following:
Windows based.
City/Town street maps are downloaded to computer (i.e. does not required a wireless internet connection to get the map images real-time).
Uses GPS on the computer via comport.
Allows me to visually track where I am on the map as I drive around.
We actually have written our own GPS application which uses ESRI shapefiles. Periodically we get complaints from customers saying the GPS is significantly "delayed" (i.e. the icon showing current location is 2-3 blocks behind the true location).
To help isolate whether it might be hardware related or our software, I would like to test alternative applications to see if they have the same delay.
I personally used Microsoft Streets and Trips on a couple of road trips. The mid-level package even comes with a GPS receiver.
If you just want tracking, then there are many applications, such as deLorme, and Microsoft's Street and Trips. S&T's big brother, MapPoint allows a programming interface, which could allow you to test various things.
None of the consumer products will support ESRI formats, although the business-oriented MapPoint can import Shapefiles using a third party add-in (yes I sell one, but there are others).
MapPoint and Streets&Trips both come with road data on DVD. The road data cannot be changed with a download.
I have to architect a commercial vehicle fleet tracking system.
Each vehicle (a few 100, max a few 1,000) will have a GPS and satellite transmitter and will periodically report its position. Positions will be stored in a database and used to create a Google Map.
There will of course be other functionalities. Security, log in, etc and probably lots of interaction with other corporate databses (drivers start/stop time for salary purposes, etc).
Question: pure GoogleMaps is probably best implemented as a browser based app (Php & MySql?), but with the additional functionality of a commercial vehicle fleet tracking system, would it be better doing something PC based (Windows/Linux)?
Any other advice? Thanks
I think with the capabilities of modern browsers, along with various mature client-side frameworks, we are witnessing an always thinning distinction between web and desktop interfaces.
You may want to take into consideration that a web application automatically solves some important problems for you:
Distribution: No need to distribute your application. Simply provide a URL.
Updates: Upgrading and fixing problems in your software will be easier and quicker if you distribute it through a web interface.
Security: Deriving from the above, you are able to fix security vulnerabilities more promptly.
Compatibility: Your application will be able to work on any operating system that can launch a web browser.
Last but not least, remember that the Google Maps API is not free for this type of application. Article 10.9.C of Google Maps API Terms and Conditions explicitly restrict using the standard Google Maps API for fleet management and asset tracking. You would need the Google Maps API Premier to legally use Google Maps for your application.
According to one unofficial source (dated April 2008), this would cost USD 10,000 per year, which entitles you to track 100 vehicles. If you exceed the 100 vehicles, you would need to add USD 24 per additional vehicle per year.
Implement solution for the domain problems first. It means data storage, data transmission between vehicles and your system, methods of data analysis, aggregation and visualisation.
These will likely to sit as a head-less system on a server and provide access to it remotely, in both directions: to input data and to query data.
Now, PC or Web is more related to presentation on a client side. You can make both if you like. Web client as well as desktop application can serve as a client to remote data and operational server.
Don't forget that you can always host a web control in a thick client app. This is actually trivial with .Net on the Windows platform with the IE control. You can also access the browser's DOM this way and do some neat things. So just because there's a strong web component to what you're doing you're not necessarily "stuck" writing a pure web app.
One big question is what kind of hardware you'll be able to put in the vehicles. Will they be laptops or small PCs with full fledged OSs or something more mobile like CE or a pared-down Linux distro?
Google Maps is JavaScript based so you can do most things with it, e.g browser based, widgets, etc. However due to the licensing Google won't allow you to use it in anything other than an Internet environment unless you use there Enterprise License.
In terms of integrating it into other systems, its really difficult to say what's best without knowing what other software you are using, what protocols they use, are web services available, etc. I agree with Daniel though in that any distributed system not implemented in a browser better have some good reasons not to, simply because the benefits are substantial. You'll need to weight them up though with a full break down of all the different systems you will need to interact with and work out what fits best.
The great thing is that with it being JavaScript based you have a lot of flexibility in what you can do with it.
This is more an extension to #Daniel Vassallo's answer. Although a web based application would solve most problems there may be the small potential issue of bandwidth usage and reception for internet access. This may or may not be an issue for the fleet management, depending on how that is tackled on the hardware side of things.
An offline solution may assist with this issue but then a clever architect could find a way to create an initial web based solution which can be accessed with an offline application which can pick up the slack and/or provide predictive reasoning until a connection is re-established.