Comment by fudged71 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by fudged71 | Hacker News Reader

Considering the possibilities, I'm very much surprised that Google hasn't entered this space to supplement their traffic intelligence. Just look at the possibilities of the Torque Android app and this Mojio dongle to see how powerful it is.

If Google came out with a bluetooth OBD-II dongle, they could integrate it into Google Maps/Nav and Google Now, both on Android and iOS. And you don't need an expensive cellular connection for a lot of the functionality, driving down the cost.

In the long term, this would have positive effects for them. They would have realtime analytics from the roads to vastly improve traffic analytics in Google Maps. Google Navigation would also be improved for the user by providing realtime information about speed and fuel, which would greatly improve the user experience (more accurate directions, heads up display of speed, and "nearest gas station" when you're running low).

Best of all? It would be $20, and provide them with all the data they need to make their upcoming driverless cars navigate better as well as improving navigation for existing android users in normal cars. It would also tell them how inefficient people are using their vehicles, and use this real crowdsourced data to market the efficiency of their driverless vehicles.

My (outsider's, totally unprivileged) understanding of Google's traffic data is that they combine official trip-time data in partnership with road authorities with realtime data from Google Maps users.

If true, they've already got data without a dongle required.

That would be a pretty cool idea. The only thing that Moj.io has over what you're proposing is the ability to be always-on, even when a phone is not in the car (hence the touted ability to detect hit & runs and towing). It would be interesting to maybe have a system that uses and assists apps on the phone but can switch over to its own connection when in a parked car.

Two options of models would be a great idea; like iPads: one with cellular, and one without. One version gives you a few more features.

I wouldn't be surprised if google acquired these guys to get into the space. Just imagine if it was tightly integrated with Android...and then imagine your google phone speaking perfectly with your google self-driving car. Oh the possibilities.

Exactly, building up this phone functionality is important to do now so that in 2-5 years we the public are more comfortable with the idea of self driving cars due to the incredible usefulness of blending the internet and analytics with vehicles (presented in a far less technical way, of course).

Imagine having an accurate trip-time estimate, adjusted regularly with information on which parking spots are available, and which entrance of a parking lot will have less congestion.

The high cost of driverless cars will make them take a while to catch on. But a cheap dongle can crowdsource this info to benefit us all.

I'm confused, how does getting the speed directly from the car improve directions and heads-up display of speed over getting the speed from the GPS unit?

It depends on a lot of factors, but with GPS there will always be lag and incorrectness. For inner-city driving, the GPS positioning might be really accurate but I doubt the speed calculation would be accurate, due to the constant acceleration, deceleration, and turning. The car's accelerometer will always be more correct.

Plus, my Galaxy S Vibrant has the worst GPS ever released, so I'm very frustrated with not having reliable navigation.

Speed readings obtained from a GPS unit is never going to be as accurate as the reading derived directly from the car, because GPS locations are only accurate to about 10ft (IINM).

Your car speed can be used in tandem with the relatively inaccurate location given by a GPS unit to give a better location reading. More info here: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Robotics/Navigation/Localizatio...

GPS extracts velocity data from the doppler shift of the signals, not by subtracting successive locations, so the 10ft accuracy doesn't come into play. My experience with GPS velocity data has been that it's more accurate than the average car's speedometer as long as you have a decent fix.

Of course, having poor signal in urban canyons or tunnels is the sort of thing I didn't think of, and that's where getting data from the car would really be handy.

The big advantage over built-in car navigation systems vs hand-held GPS units is that they measure speed and distance far more accurately via the wheel sensors. If you live in a city with a lot of tunnels or GPS dead spots, this can make a real difference.

I would imagine the same information applies. If you can blend the GPS and the wheel sensors, you would get the most accurate reading, because wheel sensors can become inaccurate through fitment of different size wheels and/or tyres.

And going over sweet jumps

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