Mercedes-Benz integrating What3Words

[Morris Minor]

It has begun. M-B today, everyone else tomorrow.
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Owners of new Mercedes-Benz vehicles will soon be able to navigate to an exact destination in the world — whether it's the back alley entrance of a concert hall or a specific entrance to a park to pick up the family — by just saying or typing three words.

The car maker said Tuesday it is adopting an addressing system created by what3words, a startup that has divided the entire world into 57 trillion 3-by-3 meter squares and assigned three words to each one. The addressing system will be embedded in Mercedes' new infotainment and navigation system that is launching in its cars next year

More: http://fortune.com/2017/09/12/mercedes-what3words-self-driving-car

[giant_mtb]

I mean, I get it, but I don't.  Only useful if you already know the 3 words associated with where you're trying to go.  Like, I know my home is "eat my shorts," but I don't know the 3 words associated with 1317 Lincoln Avenue...only way to find is to use the ol' clunky system of typing your destination in.  So, like...what's the point?  If I know a locaton's 3 words, it's because I've been there before, which means I don't need nav to get me to the right entrance.

I dunno, just seems like more technology for technology's sake. 

[Raza]

1. Get the address of where you want to go.
2. Look up the address's W3W address.
3. Input the W3W address into your car's GPS.

Hmm....I wonder if there's a way to streamline that process.

[Raza]

I mean, I get it, but I don't.  Only useful if you already know the 3 words associated with where you're trying to go.  Like, I know my home is "eat my shorts," but I don't know the 3 words associated with 1317 Lincoln Avenue...only way to find is to use the ol' clunky system of typing your destination in.  So, like...what's the point?  If I know a locaton's 3 words, it's because I've been there before, which means I don't need nav to get me to the right entrance.

I dunno, just seems like more technology for technology's sake.

Dude. You just have to memorize the 57 trillion addresses. It's not that hard.

[giant_mtb]

1. Get the address of where you want to go.
2. Look up the address's W3W address.
3. Input the W3W address into your car's GPS.

Hmm....I wonder if there's a way to streamline that process.

It's totally pointless. During step #2, you're just gonna run into the same issues that this system supposedly eliminates. 

[veeman]

Terrible idea. >99% of 3x3 meter squares don't have any road or driveway associated with it.  How would someone know which 3x3 grid to go to if you wanted to go to a particular shop in the mall?  You would have to first google the layout of the mall, find all of its entrances, and then find a 3x3 meter square grid corresponding to near that entrance.  Then you would have to look up what the three word representation of that particular grid is.  Wouldn't it be much much better to have a voice recognition navigation which you could train to understand your particular voice and accent? Modern voice recognition software can be trained to understand a particular user.  After training your nav you could say, Mercedes, take me to the Lego store at the closest shopping mall. 

[Laconian]

Addressing schemes are broken in many countries. Some big Gulf state - I think Saudi Arabia? - still uses landmarks for postal addressing.

[Soup DeVille]

I've come around on this scheme. It has its uses.

The problem is, that it allows the continued dumbing down of people's situational awareness. I don't suppose there's any stopping that at this point.

[Morris Minor]

Fix the downspout at bollocks.buggery.banana
Is better than fix the downspout; it's on the west side of the building but make sure you go past the loading dock but not as for as the trash compactor. There's a firefighters rising main right next to it, no not that one the one further along. no that's not it either.

Granularity is good.

[giant_mtb]

I think the fact that we require being dropped off at the "correct" entrance of the mall is pretty sad, too.

[Soup DeVille]

Fix the downspout at bollocks.buggery.banana
Is better than fix the downspout; it's on the west side of the building but make sure you go past the loading dock but not as for as the trash compactor. There's a firefighters rising main right next to it, no not that one the one further along. no that's not it either.

Granularity is good.

But there have been existing ways to do that for years; and sending a location from your phone along with a picture would be even better and more exact than 3 meters.

The advantage here is simplicity.

And it is useful: but I still don't like it.

[Soup DeVille]

I also think there should be a localization option for "high vulgarian."

[Raza]

Addressing schemes are broken in many countries. Some big Gulf state - I think Saudi Arabia? - still uses landmarks for postal addressing.

Yeah, I often pop out to Saudi Arabia when I'm out of milk.

[12,000 RPM]

1. Get the address of where you want to go.
2. Look up the address's W3W address.
3. Input the W3W address into your car's GPS.

Hmm....I wonder if there's a way to streamline that process.

Congrats, you earned an out loud laugh

[Morris Minor]

1. Get the address of where you want to go.

What address would that be?

[MrH]

It only works if businesses and the like adopt the concept.  If every business starts using what3words to describe they are, it would be handy.

The whole thing is kind of useless now that you can send your location to people.  In a text, I can just send exactly my location to someone.  That's a lot easier than what3words or addresses.

[TurboDan]

Doesn't seem that useful in the US market but in Europe it will be worth it. When I visit my family in Ireland, there are a lot of off-the-beaten-path roads where it's tough to nail down an address. Same (to a lesser extent) in South America, but still would be worth it to have. I was driving to a restaurant in Costa Rica a few months ago and had to make some guesses because the paved road became a dirt road with other dirt roads springing out from it. Would have loved to input some number into the GPS and have it take me there.

[TBR]

Doesn't seem that useful in the US market but in Europe it will be worth it. When I visit my family in Ireland, there are a lot of off-the-beaten-path roads where it's tough to nail down an address. Same (to a lesser extent) in South America, but still would be worth it to have. I was driving to a restaurant in Costa Rica a few months ago and had to make some guesses because the paved road became a dirt road with other dirt roads springing out from it. Would have loved to input some number into the GPS and have it take me there.

It would be really useful places that have multiple streets with the same or very similar names. Very easy to end-up on the wrong Peachtree in Atlanta if you're just going off of traditional street address.

[AutobahnSHO]

It will take off like crazy in areas where street addresses are shady. They'll tell you they live at "banana-ducky-mop" and you can get right there easily.

It will be funny when it tells you to turn on streets though...

But really this will be most helpful in underdeveloped areas. Y'all forget that the US is less than 5% of the world's population, and a huge amount of the world is not as "civilized" as the US. Good luck with addresses here: (zoom in as far as it will go and tell me how you'd describe where you live)
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Mandigobindgarh,+Block+32,+Trilokpuri,+New+Delhi,+Delhi+110091,+India/@28.600714,77.302115,649m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x390ce493d0680d91:0x1e277eaa4fcf169e!8m2!3d28.6004189!4d77.304082?hl=en

[Laconian]

W3W is used strictly to encode coordinate pairs. I don't think it's used for street names. So if you come to a weird road, it might just be Untitled Road 1.

[giant_mtb]

If this ever takes off, I'm gonna call it "whew."

[Submariner]

Doesn't seem that useful in the US market but in Europe it will be worth it. When I visit my family in Ireland, there are a lot of off-the-beaten-path roads where it's tough to nail down an address. Same (to a lesser extent) in South America, but still would be worth it to have. I was driving to a restaurant in Costa Rica a few months ago and had to make some guesses because the paved road became a dirt road with other dirt roads springing out from it. Would have loved to input some number into the GPS and have it take me there.

So...uh...welcome back...

[TBR]

Even in London and with the knowledge, we have had cabbies take people to the crescent version of our street. So we just tell people to use the post code instead, which is quite precise. This is basically the concept of detailed post codes taken to 12.

[giant_mtb]

Crescent version?

[TBR]

Crescent version?

Buckingham Ave vs Buckingham Crescent (note, I don't actually live on something called Buckingham Ave)

[giant_mtb]

Ah, I gotcha. So it's similar to how you could have Lincoln Ave, Street, and Parkway.

[AutobahnSHO]

W3W is used strictly to encode coordinate pairs. I don't think it's used for street names. So if you come to a weird road, it might just be Untitled Road 1.

that's the funny part. Put in 3word but gps would still direct you by streets. But I really think it's brilliant.

[AutobahnSHO]

Oh and make sure to used satellite view on that link above!

[Morris Minor]

This would have been useful for our Iceland trip; most of the places we visited did not have street addresses; more than once we were driving around looking for some hot pool or spring or something that the map said was in the vicinity.

It would also be handy for the neighborhood I'm in - getting contractors & maintenance crews to the right location is often an issue.