Alphabet's Sidewalk Labs is readying a product called Flow to help cities and counties make the most of transportation data. The news is another step along the path to a future version of transportation.
Laura Bliss shares the big news about a project by Alphabet's (i.e., Google's) Sidewalk Labs to develop a product called Flow—"a digital platform that seeks to address the real-time transit problem and more."
Bliss explains in more detail how Flow works:
Flow will aggregate and analyze mobility data from a great number of sources—including Google Maps, Waze, municipal data, and eventually, remote traffic sensors—to identify what’s causing congestion and which areas need what kind of service.
Conor Dougherty provides additional coverage of Flow for The New York Times, including the revelation that Flow is a part of the $40 million Smart Cities Challenge, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Dougherty also previews the look and feel of Flow along with additional details about how the product could roll out to the public.
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