Google's easy-nav Waze is getting a boost to help take the pain out of finding parking, a welcome addition to the app that already helps cut down on drive times.
The app, which uses real-time data to avoid traffic congestion and other bumps in the road, is teaming up with transportation data firm INRIX to help users sniff out places to park, according to The Verge.
Driving Miss Wazey
Speaking of end-to-end, a longer-term advantage of Waze's partnership with INRIX could be improving self-driving cars.
While it remains unconfirmed if the Google will use Waze's new parking data to support its autonomous vehicle division, the intel could help self-driving vehicles to not just get between destinations, but also locate places to stop at the end of their journeys.
Some self-driving car concepts still require the driver to go hands-on for certain procedures when driving - particularly when it comes to looking around for a place to stop. With Waze's tech and INRIX's data, Google could in theory outfit its cars to handle that particularly tedious step instead of the driver.
We haven't heard much from Google's auto-automotive division since this year's I/O conference, but we wouldn't be surprised if the company has continued to step up its self-driving game in the time since.
