A 24/7 fault-tolerant pipeline collecting synchronized ETAs from Google, HERE, TomTom, MapQuest, Waze, and Apple Maps — and a disagreement index for the routes they will not agree on.
Question
A single commercial map is a product, not a sensor. Cross-provider disagreement on the primary route is noisy. Disagreement on the alternatives is a signal: it is where the maps stop sharing a world.
Constraint
Treat each provider as a biased instrument. Do not average them into a fake ground truth. Measure consensus, and measure where it breaks.
Method
A fault-tolerant pipeline holds six commercial navigation providers in sync, collecting ETAs around the clock. The Alternative Route Disagreement Index (ARDI) quantifies cross-provider consensus on non-primary routes, so alternative-path disagreement can be used as a virtual sensor for transportation research rather than as a UI curiosity.
Artifact
More than 120 days of synchronized collection and 600,000+ route observations across six providers.
Supports virtual-sensor research in transportation science; collection is ongoing.
Virtual sensor
ARDI 0.120
HERE
TomTom
MapQuest
Waze
Apple
- Primary spread
- 0.026
- Alt. spread
- 0.120
Primary routes usually agree. Alternatives do not. ARDI is the spread on the non-primary paths — a virtual sensor built from six commercial maps rather than from any one of them. Schematic of the index, not a live feed.