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How a Google Maps Competitor Developed a Wrong-Way Driver Warning Feature

The modern navigation apps are no longer supposed to just get drivers from where they are to where they want to go, as they also bundle new-generation features that make the experience behind the wheel not only safer but also more convenient.
Authorities have installed dedicated signs to warn drivers they are going in the opposite direction 10 photos
Photo: Screenshot from YouTube video/CBS Colorado
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Waze is the perfect example in this regard.

Running on a crowdsourcing engine, Waze can alert drivers of what’s happening on the road ahead, therefore making every journey more predictable.

But navigation expert Sygic, whose software is often considered among the most advanced alternatives to the likes of Google Maps and Waze, has managed to push everything to a completely new level.

The company has developed a wrong-way driver warning system, and its purpose is pretty easy to guess. Whenever you’re behind the wheel and a wrong-way driver is believed to be heading towards you, Sygic’s GPS Navigation app can issue a warning to help prevent an accident. Furthermore, the feature has been designed in such a way that it can also tell if you are actually the wrong-way driver, thus helping reduce the time you spend going in the opposite direction.

Sign alerting drivers they are going in the wrong way
Photo: Screenshot from YouTube video/CBS Colorado
Here's how everything works.

More often than not, people who end up going the wrong way on highways claim they just followed the instructions provided by the navigation app. While this isn’t always true and these drivers are just trying to find a good excuse, GPS software does struggle to figure out if you’re on the correct side of the road because it can’t always precisely determine where you are. On highways, for instance, given we’re driving only a few meters away from the vehicles going in the opposite direction, navigation apps can’t make a difference and determine the side you’re on but only figure out which way you go.

Sygic is trying to address all these shortcomings with its wrong-way driver warning system.

The application conducts a thorough analysis of the GPS data it receives from your mobile device and then tries to determine if you’re going in the opposite direction.

If you do, the software triggers the alarm system, which comes down to acoustic and visual warnings issued to both you and the other drivers in the vicinity. The wrong-way driver also receives additional warnings, including a notification asking them to check the direction of travel and safely stop as soon as possible.

In other words, Sygic warns not only the wrong-way driver but also all the other drivers in the region that a vehicle is going in the opposite direction.

Sygic navigation on Android Auto
Photo: Sygic
It’s not hard to figure out the main limitation of the entire system. Everybody on the road must be using Sygic’s software – for instance, if the wrong-way driver themselves isn’t running Sygic’s navigation app, it doesn’t even matter if everybody else does it because the system has no idea someone is going in the opposite direction.

The efficiency of the feature comes down to the current market share of Sygic. Since it’s not necessarily the number one navigation software on the market, its impact is likely to be limited.

The only way to address these shortcomings and truly improve road safety is to develop a universal standard that would eventually be adopted by all navigation apps, including Google Maps, Waze, Apple Maps, TomTom’s products, and so on. Once everybody on the road relies on software that can alert them of wrong-way drivers, the problem can be tackled more efficiently.

For the time being, however, Sygic is just the pioneer of this idea, so fingers crossed for others to follow in its footsteps and developer similar features for their own apps. Until this happens, the best thing we can do is to always (but always!) double-check the road signs and make sure we’re going in the right direction.
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About the author: Bogdan Popa
Bogdan Popa profile photo

Bogdan keeps an eye on how technology is taking over the car world. His long-term goals are buying an 18-wheeler because he needs more space for his kid’s toys, and convincing Google and Apple that Android Auto and CarPlay deserve at least as much attention as their phones.
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