Real-time turn-by-turn navigation company Waze, who were purchased by Google in 2013, have announced the launch of their first open integration SDK (software development kit), the Transport SDK. The new SDK will allow developers who join the program to integrate elements of Waze within their own apps and services.
The SDK includes access to the Waze map, turn-by-turn navigation, and preferred routing. If that sounds like Waze is giving up everything it could well be. What Waze gets in return, however, is increased user data. For each device running a Waze enabled app Waze will receive each user anonymised location data which they will add to their aggregated real-time traffic data to further improve traffic routing and rerouting.
At launch, Waze has partnered with six developers, Cabify, 99 Taxis, JustPark, Lyft, Pulse, and CornerShop. These apps range from taxi apps, to ride sharing, to emergency service vehicle routing, to a supermarket delivery app. It seems all of the partners so far operate logistic operations that would benefit from Waze’s real-time traffic data to improve their operations.
Waze has opened up applications to use the SDK for free to any developer. In a technological world in which Australasia is often an afterthought, we were pleased to see “Australia” listed as one of the 5 developer regions on their application page. So if you’re an Australian developer with the need for access to real-time traffic data click the links and get to developing.
Or they could spend time making the app not actively awful to navigate, report incidents or find places. Basically their core value proposition.
I’ll have another look at Waze when it has offline maps