Enlarge / Crowded trains and buses have never been exactly popular—they’re even less so, midpandemic. Google Maps’ new upgrades may help its users dodge the crowds more effectively. (credit: Bloomberg or Getty Images )
Today, Google announced a major expansion of its ability to warn users of crowded mass transit ahead associated with time. The feature originally launched in June 2019 and covered roughly 200 cities globally, using user-reported data similar to Waze to discover and predict overcrowded trains plus buses. Google is expanding that 200-city initial rollout to (eventually) over 10, 000 transit agencies in 100 countries, according to today’s announcement.
Unsurprisingly, Google Maps’ mass transit predictions don’t just rely on direct user-reported data. They utilize AI models trained on that data.
“We apply world-class anonymization technology and differential privacy techniques to Location History Data to make sure your data remains private in addition to secure, ” the announcement declares—although we must point out that attempts to anonymize location data frequently fail .
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