Chicago is installing beacons to keep your GPS from freaking out

#News(IoTStack) [ via IoTForIndiaGroup ]

The panic that strikes drivers who lose GPS signal when cruising onto Lower Wacker Drive could soon be eliminated for users of the Waze navigation app.

Google-owned Waze is teaming up with Chicago-based SpotHero and the city to install beacons along Chicago’s 5 miles of lower roads. The beacons will send a signal to drivers’ cellphones, providing a positioning alternative to GPS when they head underground with their Bluetooth and Waze app on.

Waze has helped install beacons in seven other cities, including Boston and Pittsburgh in the U.S. Batteries in the beacons last four to six years, and they don’t require much maintenance after installation.

At first, just the 829,000 active Chicago-area Waze users will be able to receive the signals coming from the beacons. SpotHero will prompt its users to open directions to their parking spot in Waze. Disatnik said he expects other technology companies to outfit their apps to receive the nonproprietary signal.

For example, unless Google Maps integrates the technology, users of that app will still not have location signals on Chicago’s lower streets. Google representatives were not immediately available for comment.

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