RobertB
01 April 2005, 02:43 PM
This is pretty cool, especially for a mapgeek like me. At first, I thought it was one of many April Fools articles on Slashdot (http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/01/0337245&tid=217&tid=162), but it seems to be real: Google Labs has a beta product called "Ride Finder". Cab companies and other transportation providers feed Google their vehicles' positions, and Google plots them on their already-excellent Google Maps. The result is a map that shows where all the vehicles in the fleet are currently located!
Try the Dallas map (http://labs.google.com/ridefinder?z=8&near=Dallas%2C%20TX&src=1). You can tell that it's an accurate listing of the SuperShuttle locations by the way most of the vans are deployed in North Dallas, but several are currently lined up along International Parkway. In fact, when I zoom in, I can see which terminals they're currently serving.
Even more interesting is the Chicago (http://labs.google.com/ridefinder?z=8&near=Chicago%2C%20IL&src=1) map, which shows the locations of the cabs of three competing cab companies. You can zoom in on, say, The Loop, and hit the "Update Vehicle Positions" button occasionally to watch the traffic. Or zoom out and wonder how much it cost that guy to take a cab to DeKalb, almost halfway to Iowa. It looks like the cab listings are updated to reflect cabs that are actually available.
Try the Dallas map (http://labs.google.com/ridefinder?z=8&near=Dallas%2C%20TX&src=1). You can tell that it's an accurate listing of the SuperShuttle locations by the way most of the vans are deployed in North Dallas, but several are currently lined up along International Parkway. In fact, when I zoom in, I can see which terminals they're currently serving.
Even more interesting is the Chicago (http://labs.google.com/ridefinder?z=8&near=Chicago%2C%20IL&src=1) map, which shows the locations of the cabs of three competing cab companies. You can zoom in on, say, The Loop, and hit the "Update Vehicle Positions" button occasionally to watch the traffic. Or zoom out and wonder how much it cost that guy to take a cab to DeKalb, almost halfway to Iowa. It looks like the cab listings are updated to reflect cabs that are actually available.