Incidentally if I'm stuck on M25 nr Brook St and I want to go to Billericay. Id get off go into Brentwood turn into the lane next to the Aston Martin dealer and keep going straight. Past the FatTurk junction through to a roundabout then running waters. Then turn right towards Billericay. Neatly avoiding M25 car park and A127. Being a local has its benefits.
Today's technology is learning from us, and using that knowledge against us. That shortcut you once knew? Now it's being used by hundreds of other drivers, making it useless. Your app is learning from you and using your own knowledge to benefit others.
I’ve started turning off GPS/navigation when I take my shortcuts. It might sound selfish… but I’m protecting my intellectual property.
Now imagine you’re a robot-taxi company that also controls traffic data. You could marshall other drivers using your sat-nav to busy routes while prioritising your own driverless vehicles on now cleared up routes. That’s not just smart, but bad capitalism.
Indeed. The local dual carriageway in my area was completely closed a few weeks ago due to a bad MVA, and so vehicles diverted onto local roads instead, but as they found out (I was on a cycle ride down these roads when it happened), few of these roads were suitable, because many are single track roads, with few proper passing places.
It was absolute chaos.
From cycling a lot along the minor roads in my region, I've built up a good mental database of which roads would and more importantly, wouldn't be suitable as alternative routes should a more major road get blocked, including where damaged sections of road are and where to slow right down for safety and to not damage the car.
This is rather like know-how you use in shops to save money - why let everyone know, because then most of those amazing bargains will have been snapped up by others, or in some cases, the people at the shop's HQ cotton on and, one way or the other, put an end to such things.
The only times I do think it's useful to be a contributor on an app / website are:
1. Putting up genuine reviews for products and services that people find useful and reciprocate, plus they given genuinely good businesses more custom and ensure they thrive, and the opposite for poor ones.
2. The PetrolPrices app/website. Whilst they do appear to have their own 'mystery shoppers' who report on filling station prices, many outlets (smaller, rural ones especially) are missed or don't get covered very often, despite in some circumstances being quite competitive on price in that area. In some cases, it has been a useful tool for driving down prices.
Some filling stations are closed (permanently) but have been still listed, so it's useful to contact them to let them know, so people (non-locals) avoid wasted trips, worst case getting stranded from running out of fuel.
If I can, I try to note down / remember the prices (even when out cycling) and then upload the information later on my return. Just a shame you don't appear to get any actual BIK other than that described above, although one could argue people may not reciprocate because they think you'll do all the work for them.
Apps of any type are only as useful as the data that they use, as well as the software it's built upon.
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