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Google's In-House Incubator Made a Waze-Like App For the New York City Subway (theverge.com) 28

Posted by BeauHD from the headache-free dept.
Google's in-house startup incubator Area 120 has developed a new app to help New York City subway commuters avoid delays. An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: The app, called Pigeon, is live on Apple's App Store, but access is still limited to those with an invitation code. Its developers say the app can help commuters choose routes that avoid delays and crowds other users report. Google Maps and the MTA's own website already provide information on what trains aren't working. But Pigeon will also allow users to post specific comments and note annoying incidents, such as loud street performers. It sounds more like a social media app for New Yorkers to commiserate on their miserable commutes.

After you download Pigeon, it'll prompt you to allow location services multiple times. Once inside the app, there are cute pigeons all over the subway map, but tapping on them right away doesn't seem to do anything. The app's functionality is extremely reliant on what people report (hence the large purple Report button at the bottom of the screen). Pigeon's traffic reports sound just like Google's Waze app but exclusively for the New York subway system.
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Google's In-House Incubator Made a Waze-Like App For the New York City Subway More

Google's In-House Incubator Made a Waze-Like App For the New York City Subway

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  • Really uninteresting pile of bullshit made by medieval knight shot by a pike.

  • Almost all the time there will not be any useful alternatives to get to your destination. If you are already on the subway there is most likely no quicker alternative. If you check the app before you travel and you happen to be somewhere where there are multiple lines it might be useful but if the delay happens after you start you are probably stuck.

    • Almost all the time there will not be any useful alternatives to get to your destination.

      That's not really true. There are some instances where there isn't any viable alternative. It's not that unusual that there's an alternate subway or bus route that will take you to the same approximate location. If a train is going to take long enough, sometimes it even makes more sense to walk than to wait.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      Almost all the time there will not be any useful alternatives to get to your destination. If you are already on the subway there is most likely no quicker alternative. If you check the app before you travel and you happen to be somewhere where there are multiple lines it might be useful but if the delay happens after you start you are probably stuck.

      Not really, well-connected public transit systems often have multiple ways to get to the same destination. Heck, there are plenty of popular YouTube videos that

    • No alternatives except for walking, biking, bus, taxi, Lyft...

  • ”After you download Pigeon, it'll prompt you to allow location services multiple times.”

    How does that work in the subway?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      âAfter you download Pigeon, it'll prompt you to allow location services multiple times.â

      How does that work in the subway?

      Because a phone doesn't rely solely on GPS? Localion services on phones can rely on 4 different types of signals to triangulate position - 2 are GNSS based - GPS and GLOSNASS (and some are having Galileo support too). The other two are WiFi and cellular.

      Both Apple and Google use WiFi for triangulation where GNSS signals are absent, like indoors and underground. Apple devices gen

    • Out of curiosity, I've been using Google Maps' timeline feature to log my commute times and the various paths I take between home and work to see which one offers the shortest travel times. It's not as clear-cut as it would seem, since in my particular corner of NYC, between various combinations of subways and buses, there are upwards of 14 different routes I could take to make the trip without going very far out of my way.

      As for location services underground, I have found that if you connect to the WiFi
  • With a history of actual travel times and delays the app probably does an "educated guess" ie predictive analytics to find the best combo of bus/subway/walking to get to your destination. When I was in high school I had about 4 choices for each direction, each taking about 45 minutes without delays or outages; this app would have been useful.

  • The app sounds more like Moovit, which is used to route through public transportation (generally buses and trains), than Waze. Are New Yorkers driving their cars in the subway now?

  • It seems Google really has run out of innovation. I guess they will just have to forget this dull "making products" stuff, and double down on their main plan: Making an evil AI to wipe out mankind.

  • That google has an inhouse incubator, I bet he handles all the contracts and desires of the employees.

    And make em dress like magical girls to fight off witches from time to time.

  • This will be useful for me and folks like me. I don't live near the city, but do visit from time to time, often on weekends when there are planned service disruptions in addition to the countless unplanned disruptions and delays that I'm told happen 24/7/365. I have very basic familiarity with the subways, but not enough to know the best ways around them. But I'm also not going to try to drive or park in Manhattan, nor do I have the bus routes memorized, nor do I wish to walk with my kids at night throug

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It's a naive, domestic operating system without any breeding, but I think you'll be amused by its presumption.

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