Hey all,
I’ve been diving deep into AI lately—specifically, how we can use Google Maps API to build smarter, real-time traffic prediction systems. I’d love to share some insights and hear your thoughts.
Why it matters
Smarter routing — Think of apps that don’t just navigate you around traffic but actually anticipate jams before they happen.
Better city planning — Urban planners could use predictive analytics to design roads and manage congestion more proactively.
Lifestyle improvements — Imagine leaving home at the right time so you never hit traffic—what a time saver that would be!
How it might work
Real-time data feeds: Google Maps gives us current traffic speeds, incidents, and delays.
AI modeling: We can feed historical traffic data into machine learning models (like time-series models, LSTM, or even gradient boosting) to forecast traffic trends.
Pattern recognition: The AI learns how factors like time of day, weather, or local events impact traffic, enabling predictive pathing rather than reactive routing.
Continuous refinement: By comparing predicted vs actual traffic, we can retrain the model to get better over time.
Some questions to spark conversation
Model recommendations: Have you experimented with specific algorithms (e.g., ARIMA, Prophet, LSTM)? Which performed best?
Data sources: Beyond Google’s API, any other APIs or datasets you’ve used to enhance accuracy?
Edge cases: Any tricky scenarios you’ve handled—unexpected events like accidents, construction, or festival traffic?
Interface ideas: Would a predictive traffic overlay (color-coded future paths) be useful? Or perhaps traffic “intel” notifications (like “Expect a slowdown in 10 minutes on your route”)?
What about next steps?
If you're up for it, maybe we can start a mini-project challenge:
Week 1: Set up data collection (Google Maps + open datasets)
Week 2: Train a basic predictive model
Week 3: Build a minimal UI to show predictions on a map
Week 4: Demo and celebrate wins (and laughs)!
Let me know what you think—whether you're a beginner, pro, or somewhere in between, your insights could be invaluable. Looking forward to hearing your ideas, questions, or even your own experiences!
Cheers,
Dip Saha
