A few months back the rumor mill believed that Apple was going to acquire Waze, but that deal didn’t come through. It was Google who ended up purchasing Waze. A new patent of the company has been discovered which hints at crowd sourced traffic data being diplayed in Apple’s native iOS Maps application, Waze is a service that already provides a similar feature. Called “User-specified route rating and alerts,” the patent details how the Maps app will able to generate routing information based on collective input from the users.
A unique system will be built in to the iOS Maps app which will allow users to assign a number rating to a route that they have just been on. This input is then sent to a central navigation service which will generate different routes for different users based on such inputs. Users will also be able to add other information like flagging an alert if they see a blocked roadway or an accident, this information will then be displayed to a different user based on their proximity to that location. This particular patent application was filed back in December 2011, such features have not yet been added in iOS Maps app, so one can’t be sure when crowd sourced traffic data might be making its debut on iOS devices. [Image via AppleInsider]