TRANSPORT navigation platform Waze is making its data available on Google Cloud to allow city partners analyze and utilize traffic patterns for their own purposes.

In a statement, Waze said its Waze for Cities Data is now accessible through Google Cloud by its more than 1,000 global partners. This is expected to help municipalities and other first responders in infrastructure planning.

“We are thrilled to provide this integration with Google Cloud that will make it even easier for our Waze for Cities partners to more seamlessly organize, store, interpret and share transportation data and insights,” Waze Head of Public Sector Partnerships Dani Simons said in the statement.

Waze launched the collaborative program with cities in October 2014, but partners used to have to create their own platforms to analyze and maximize the data.

With the partnership with Google, Waze allows its city partners to create visualizations and use other Google Cloud tools to more easily navigate the traffic data it collects.

“Waze for Cities Data partners will no longer need to build their own tools or have different systems for different data sources. The integration with Google Cloud will make it easy to view Waze for Cities Data and layer in other transportation-related data sources to see the full picture of mobility trends in one place,” Google Cloud Director, for Product Management Sudhir Hasbe said.

Mr. Simons added that the partnership with Google is important as the past five years showed city data continues to grow, making it necessary to have better tools to analyze and crunch them.

“With the availability of Waze’s Cities Data, Waze for Cities partners will have access to best-in-class data warehouse tool BigQuery and data visualization tool Data Studio. These tools will make the data even easier to interpret and communicate to non-technical audiences,” Waze said.

In its website, Waze said it offers the partnership for sharing traffic data for free. Once partners, Waze will give the city or public sector partner an access to the platform to input road closures and other traffic emergencies. — Denise A. Valdez

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