The other day, me and my family were driving to a nearby Amish village in two cars and we found it incredibly hard to keep up with each other and know each other's location and whereabouts. It is a common problem for many who are driving to a relatively unknown area in groups. How can we make this easier?
Currently, we manage the above-described situation by messaging geo-coordinates to each other and navigating there! Can we do better?
What if our Navigation apps have a 'Group Sync' feature that lets us sync our location and destination to our friends / family driving somewhere in different cars?
We should be able to see each other's location and destination on map, navigate to any given person's current location (when they stop by for some reason) and be able to pull each other's destination and set course there or push our destination to others for them to optionally change their course and destination. These features can greatly simplify the experience for those driving together and reduce the anxiety when we lose sight of each other!
Technically, its simple to implement this using push services and on the UX side - Tap on the Avatar to view their current location on map and double tap to go to the details screen and navigate to their current location or their destination.
Update: I am aware that Waze does this to an extent, but my idea is to take this group sync feature to a whole new level.
Currently, we manage the above-described situation by messaging geo-coordinates to each other and navigating there! Can we do better?
What if our Navigation apps have a 'Group Sync' feature that lets us sync our location and destination to our friends / family driving somewhere in different cars?
We should be able to see each other's location and destination on map, navigate to any given person's current location (when they stop by for some reason) and be able to pull each other's destination and set course there or push our destination to others for them to optionally change their course and destination. These features can greatly simplify the experience for those driving together and reduce the anxiety when we lose sight of each other!
Technically, its simple to implement this using push services and on the UX side - Tap on the Avatar to view their current location on map and double tap to go to the details screen and navigate to their current location or their destination.
Update: I am aware that Waze does this to an extent, but my idea is to take this group sync feature to a whole new level.
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@Praveen- That is positively brilliant! How would this be integrated into the software and communication patterns of the devices? Every time I read a post you've written about technology I learn so much about things that we tend to take for granted and I realize just how incredible the functionality and technology truly are!
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@Nicholas - This is actually suggested as an enhancement to mainstream navigation apps such as Google Maps, etc. Well, the technical details can be terse to discuss here, but I can say that this functionality is not difficult to implement. Especially to the incumbents in this space such as Nokia and Apple with their respective Maps offerings, this feature can become a worthy differentiating factor and win some loyal user base.
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Taking existing technology to the next level is KEY to our future to my way of thinking - we take old methods to new tools and don't really use them to their full benefit! (New to Talkonomy - hoping folks who can make things happen listen here for the great ideas that are voiced! Happy new year!
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@Barney - Welcome to Talkonomy :-) Every technology is an evolving proposition and continued innovation and ideation is the key! Even though progress might be sluggish to our taste, we should not fail to recognize that our generation has achieved and enjoyed exponentially more than those before us.
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Finally Google is bringing location sharing to Google Maps. It's not exactly opt in location sync as described above but a step in this direction. We can't confirm the breadth of this new functionality in Maps until we see it in flesh though. ( Ref - https://goo.gl/dggy5a ) Stay tuned for more updates.
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Google Maps now has it. Most of it. It's as if they have heard us. No Acknowledgement though - https://goo.gl/qfjUjv
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