Whilst shuttling back and forth to my daughter's I got to wondering how Google maps can show accurate traffic. I know cameras monitor traffic flow on major roads, but minor roads don't have camera coverage.
Perhaps mobile 'phone signals or sat navs. Does anyone know?
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That's very close to my understanding but to clarify (how I see it) - your phone's position and speed is triangulated from it's phone signal, using your GPS coordinates which are sent across your internet connection to Google.
GPS itself is on way only and Google don't have access to it.
Now that we know that, what I think is more clever is how does it know whether you've stopped for a pee and a coffee, or you are a delivery driver doing stop/start drops, or whether the road is slow/blocked? I suppose they filter out the top and bottom x% to take an average, and of course the speeds feed into your ETA too).
Smart things, phones!!
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>> That's very close to my understanding but to clarify (how I see it) - your
>> phone's position and speed is triangulated from it's phone signal, using your GPS coordinates which
>> are sent across your internet connection to Google.
>>
>> GPS itself is on way only and Google don't have access to it.
Yes they do, its an explict "allow / acceptance"* when you install/use google apps on your phone.
you can say no, but then stuff don't work.
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The phone is telling Google where you are all the time. If you don't disable it there is a timeline of where you've been to in Google Maps.
I reset permissions of apps on my phone a few weeks ago. Google Maps is currently creating notifications for traffic etc. I will probably turn it off. Popped to Aldi today and Google suggested I take some photos of this popular location and share them.
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>> I reset permissions of apps on my phone a few weeks ago. Google Maps is
>> currently creating notifications for traffic etc. I will probably turn it off. Popped to Aldi
>> today and Google suggested I take some photos of this popular location and share them.
Whilst driving through Fulham last year, google wanted me to provide a review of a Gay Club that happened to be by a set of traffic lights I stopped at.
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What I meant is that the GPS signal is one way only, nothing is ever transmitted back to the satellite from any device. And I think the satellites are US Army aren't they, not Google?
I understand about permissions on the phone... :-)
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Phone gets its sat fix (from US, European and Russian satellites) and sends it to google over phone data, so they are, more or less, tracking your every move and how fast you are doing it.
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Doesn't matter if your phone has used GPS, GLONASS, Galileo or BeiDou/COMPASS or a combination to locate you. Or just triangulated cellphone masts and even WiFi signals.... it then tells Google where you are over your data connection.
If you've never tuned down what it sends and stores, you might be alarmed. But it will send location regardless of what you set. It will scan WiFi signals and send back info on these even if WiFi is allegedly turned off. Turning off WiFi on Android stops using it for data, the phone can still pick up on WiFi hotspots.
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Google maps traffic - Dog
