After having tremendous fun with the WebSocket and Raspberry Pi controlled car, with two of my colleagues, Prashant Khanal and Vikram Dave, recently we attended the Hertz Mobility and Connected Car Hackathon. Hertz was looking for creative ideas and apps for a more connected traveler experience.
The project we dreamed up addresses real-time location sharing between a car and another party, inspired by Waze’s drive sharing. Our objective was to move the experience from a pseudo real-time experience to a true real-time one.
We see three typical scenarios:
- Desktop: You’re heading over to your mom’s house for lunch, and want to share your trip with her, so she can follow you on her computer screen. In this case it’s only you sharing your location with your mother. (This is the one Waze is targeting.)
- Mobile: You’re picking up a friend in the city. She’s walking towards you to find a convenient location where you can stop safely until she gets in the car. In this case, it’s both you and your friend sharing your locations mutually with each other; your friend is on a smartphone, you’re using the navigation system of your car.
- Car caravan: You’re on a road trip with friends; a caravan of two or more cars. You want to know where the other car is, and want to share your location with the other car, in case you loose each other.
For more information, check out our blog post on the proejct: http://blog.kaazing.com/?p=2301.
You can watch the end-result here: https://vimeo.com/64685584