First, it was RouteGuru. Now, Yahoo India has launched driving directions, with the added bonus of “auto fares” for that route! Sounds cool. But the reality…
I searched for the route from Old Madras Road to Cunningham Road. The good news is that Landmark-based driving directions (which RouteGuru kick started few months ago) seems to work as well as they do on RouteGuru.
But, here are couple of issues to be resolved:
- The “auto fare” is far from reality. For the above route that I looked up, the “auto fare” displayed is Rs. 45!!! That was probably the fare several years ago!!
- The results also show the time it’s supposed to take for that route. And, going by the results here, it’s supposed to take me 25 minutes to get there. Yeah, right! Probably on a Sunday, when the whole city’s under curfew!
Anyways, sarcasm aside, I thought the “auto fares” feature is a really good idea. But, it’s got to be implemented with a reality-check. You can’t release this feature without having tested it thoroughly with real-life data.
Interestingly, I can see this feature working very differently in a city like Chennai. For those unfamiliar with Chennai’s infamous auto drivers, they don’t use the meter at all…it’s just a “flat rate”, depending on their mood or state of mind at that moment! So, as & when the Yahoo “auto fares” feature is updated with more realistic auto fares, this could probably be used by those in Chennai to figure out what’s the bargaining benchmark, especially for those who’re new to the city!
With regards to the “Time” mentioned for each route, this is quite redundant, unless integrated with a real-time traffic monitoring system like MapUnity’s BTIS application. Maybe it’s on the cards…who knows, but until then it’s quite a pointless, even misleading feature.
5 responses so far ↓
My Ghillie » Yahoo’s driving directions in India // October 30, 2007 at 1:19 am |
[...] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerpt [...]
Piyush // October 30, 2007 at 10:57 am |
Hi,
About Auto Fares – I think its a good feature, it may work for Chennai, but it works in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore kind of cities definitely.
Also not all Indian cities still have Autos moving on the road, we have rickshaw pullers, thus, the feature is targeted to the cities where it makes meaning.
You may find the following Analysis related as well. http://silicontryst.wordpress.com/2007/10/27/driving-direction-launch-by-yahoo-an-analysis/
Fly on the wall // October 30, 2007 at 1:11 pm |
That’s true. It’s definitely targeted towards the bigger cities (speaking of which, wonder if they are going to roll out “taxi fares” for cities like Mumbai and Calcutta).
By the way, congrats on RouteGuru. I think you guys have identified an interesting niche, but now that folks like Yahoo (and soon, Google, I’m sure) are catching up with landmark based directions, I’m curious to know how RouteGuru will continue to innovate.
Your analysis on your blog, especially about relevant/meaningful landmarks to be used in the directions provided, is spot on. I noticed that in few random routes I looked up on Yahoo.
All the best.
Cheers,
Param
Piyush // October 30, 2007 at 11:54 pm |
Hi Param,
Appreciate your kind words. Further discussion I’m taking through email.
Regards
tamil mania // November 22, 2007 at 10:37 am |
Add This Page With Tamil Social Bookmarking