Microsoft announced the launch of traffic cameras in Bing Maps. Yep, you read that correctly.
“Seeing is believing,” the company says in a blog post. “Here at Bing Maps we know the value of traffic information, however, there is something to be said about being able to see the current road conditions. We are proud to announce that you can now view more than 35,000 traffic cameras across 11 countries in Bing Maps.”
Users can access these views by turning on the traffic layer (by clicking “traffic”) on a map. From there, you’ll get traffic info overlaid on roads on the map, and you can zoom in to bring up traffic cameras where available.
“Want to compare a few cameras? No worries, we’ve got you covered. Simply return to summary and we will show your Recently viewed cameras. Now the cameras you check for your daily commute are ready and waiting,” Bing says. “As you can tell, we are very excited. Integrating the Clearflow traffic prediction algorithm was just the tip of the iceberg. Now we are showing traffic cameras. Can you believe this all started as a data-driven experiment? Neither can we, however, this is just part of the innovative culture we embrace at Bing Maps.”
It’s unclear where all exactly the feature is available, but it definitely is in Seattle.
Image via Bing