Sidewalk Labs revealed its new platform that aims to offer city traffic managers improved control over chaotic and overcrowded streets.
With Flow, cities will be able to have improved handling of parking problems, traffic congestion and seamless integration of self-driving cars.
The team behind Flow labels it a "transportation coordination platform." It makes use of aggregated, anonymous traffic data and sends feedback about bottlenecks and traffic nuisances. Drivers using the platform get real-time notifications about traffic jams and even about the availability of parking spaces.
Sidewalk Labs cooperated with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and initiated the Smart City contest. In the competition, a myriad of medium-sized cities fought to win the $40 million in federal funds that are destined to upgrade their transportation infrastructure.
According to the DOT, the seven cities that made it to the finals are: Austin, Columbus, Denver, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Portland and San Francisco. The second stage of the contest is running as we speak, as each city received $100,000 from the agency to implement and showcase their ideas. The big winner will be selected in June.
Alongside the financing, the winner of Smart City will benefit from Sidewalk Labs' Flow platform.
To get the traffic data, 100 public Wi-Fi hubs might be installed. New York City already implemented such devices, and Big Apple's residents might recognize the LinkNYC kiosks.
The public hubs have to be authorized by the city council first, but there is little reason for the authorities not to do so. The company mentions that the platform can pilot drivers directly to free parking spaces, as well as adjust transit routes or change traffic patterns in real time, facing the dynamic demands of road congestion.
Flow will also analyze data received from third-party apps, such as Waze and Google Maps. Both navigation apps are owned by Google, so integration should be a breeze.
The CEO of Sidewalk Labs, Daniel Doctoroff, notes that the scope of the platform is to offer users "ground truth in real-time." To do this, a surge of data has to be gathered, gauged and interpreted.
Doctoroff goes on to say that an analytical engine will let cities map the existing traffic and adjust priorities accordingly, whether we are talking public transportation or parking.
"We can potentially build applications over time, some of which may be consumer applications," he says.
DOT Secretary Anthony Foxx expressed his enthusiasm toward the idea of having a smartphone app to help average citizens solve common transportation challenges. Foxx mentions that he sees huge potential in his agency's partnership with Sidewalk Labs, especially regarding cities with outdated, subpar infrastructure.
"Does this solve the infrastructure deficit by itself? No," Foxx said. "Does it give us some road maps to look at how we might use technology and innovation to reduce the cost of mobility the way we want it? Yeah."
Sidewalk Labs did mention that it looks into developing and purchasing new technologies that will cater to the upcoming increase in self-driving cars.
Flow is only an example of this.
Doctoroff points out that the first step before having autonomous vehicles running safely is to know exactly what is going on with regular cars in everyday traffic.
