How Google Maps Predicts Traffic Before It Happens

How does Google Maps know there's a traffic jam ahead, and how can it warn you before the jam has even started? There are no cameras on most roads. The sensors are the phones in every car, including yours. Here's how Google Maps really works out traffic: - Phones with location on share how fast they are moving, pooled together and anonymous - When hundreds of phones on one stretch of road slow down, that road turns red - Maps remembers every road's usual rhythm, hour by hour, weekday by weekday - A Google DeepMind AI treats roads as a network, so it can see a jam spreading before it reaches you - In 2020 lockdowns broke the usual patterns, so Maps learned to trust the last few weeks more - Councils add roadworks and closures, and drivers report crashes Over a billion kilometres are driven with Google Maps every day, and every trip quietly measures the road for everyone else. Next time Maps reroutes you, you'll know who to thank: the drivers stuck ahead of you. Follow Binaryhood for more on how the tech you use every day actually works. #GoogleMaps #Traffic #Shorts #technology