How to Make Driving Directions Better

Eric • 2nd Feb 2007 • Technology

For some reason, my Garmin unit likes to send me all sorts of strange ways to get places. If I know where I’m going, the Garmin is not the way to get there. If I’m lost, it’s a dream.

Some Garmin GPS units, like the StreetPilot c340, have SD cards in them. They can also collect data – that data could be saved on the SD card, and sent to Garmin. Then, Garmin would have TONS of data.

So if you’re heading east on Sheridan drive and approaching Elmwood Ave. on a Monday afternoon at 3:30, the average number of seconds you wait at that light is 7.8. But on a Friday night, you wait 80.2 seconds.

The 190N at Niagara St.’s average speed is 62 Monday at 6:30 AM, but it’s only 34 Monday at 5:20 PM.
Heading W on Knowlton at Myron, you stop at the stop sign for .8 seconds.
Making a left off Delaware Ave onto Westgate Tuesday at 11:45 AM, you wait for a break in the the oncoming traffic for an average of 5.4 seconds

Armed with this information, driving directions could be A LOT better. Why would users submit this info?

Garmin releases new maps annually. It’s a trade… for every 1 minute of driving-data that you submit, you get $0.01 credit for software upgrades. So the $75.00 upgrade would be 7,500 minutes of driving, or 125 hours. If it takes you 20 minutes to get to work each day, and 20 minutes home, that’s 40 minutes per day, or 200 minutes per week. In 37.5 weeks, you could have your maps upgrade paid for. That’s assuming you’re a loser, and don’t go anywhere other than work.