RE: Mercedes introduces what3words to sat-navs
Discussion
Come on, Lads. What 3 Words is a British invention, so a bit more appreciation would not be out of order. There's a distinction between asking questions about a successful business and... questioning the entire premise as if it will be unlikely to succeed.
The team have thought through a boat load of problems (eg: words that sound alike or words that have diverse spellings) that would otherwise challenge successful implementation. For example, here and here.
I like the instant simplicity (no series of abstract numerical coordinates) as well as allowing things to be user-driven and extemporaneous such as creating and broadcasting a meeting point on the fly.
What 3 Words were also selling the rights to a second layer of user-chosen words (like brand names or like personalised number plates) which would operate in parallel to the free and public layer of words. That was a couple of years ago, and I don't know if they still do that.
The team have thought through a boat load of problems (eg: words that sound alike or words that have diverse spellings) that would otherwise challenge successful implementation. For example, here and here.
I like the instant simplicity (no series of abstract numerical coordinates) as well as allowing things to be user-driven and extemporaneous such as creating and broadcasting a meeting point on the fly.
What 3 Words were also selling the rights to a second layer of user-chosen words (like brand names or like personalised number plates) which would operate in parallel to the free and public layer of words. That was a couple of years ago, and I don't know if they still do that.
Having had a quick look, I think it's a great idea with lots of potential.
It gives the exact location or address as a sequence of three words, and three words are much easier to remember and communicate than two numbers with lots of decimal digits.
You could even have a separate address for your front and back doors.
You could even let someone know exactly where there's an open parking space.
And, for example, if you give the 3word addresses for three adjacent squares, it pretty much guards 100% against errors, misspellings, etc. If one square is the opposite side of the world to the other two then you know it's wrong.
It gives the exact location or address as a sequence of three words, and three words are much easier to remember and communicate than two numbers with lots of decimal digits.
You could even have a separate address for your front and back doors.
You could even let someone know exactly where there's an open parking space.
And, for example, if you give the 3word addresses for three adjacent squares, it pretty much guards 100% against errors, misspellings, etc. If one square is the opposite side of the world to the other two then you know it's wrong.
Crazy-narrow thinking on here as per.
Very clever system and is being put on show here in the context of a vehicle navigation system. The reality is that this will not replace your address, but supplement it. Much more accurate physical location of an address, for example.
Now think about going to a location that is not an address - you need to get to the jetty somewhere on your local river. Easy.
Or how about the council directing their workforce to a faulty street light or pot hole. Neither of those things have an address, but being able to give then a sat nav entry on the worksheet of 'bottom fish bananas' which takes you to the 3x3 square that the issue is in...well, you see what I mean!
Or electricity workers going to specific pylons...or relief workers navigating to points without a street in Africa...or Florida.
Very, very clever bit of thinking and that's before I get on to the business model mentioned about that will allow businesses to buy word combos for themselves like 'massive unwashed toilet' leading directly to The Stadium of Light....
And 3 words are easier to remember or speak to a vehicle nav than an long/lat number combo, that's for sure!
Very clever system and is being put on show here in the context of a vehicle navigation system. The reality is that this will not replace your address, but supplement it. Much more accurate physical location of an address, for example.
Now think about going to a location that is not an address - you need to get to the jetty somewhere on your local river. Easy.
Or how about the council directing their workforce to a faulty street light or pot hole. Neither of those things have an address, but being able to give then a sat nav entry on the worksheet of 'bottom fish bananas' which takes you to the 3x3 square that the issue is in...well, you see what I mean!
Or electricity workers going to specific pylons...or relief workers navigating to points without a street in Africa...or Florida.
Very, very clever bit of thinking and that's before I get on to the business model mentioned about that will allow businesses to buy word combos for themselves like 'massive unwashed toilet' leading directly to The Stadium of Light....
And 3 words are easier to remember or speak to a vehicle nav than an long/lat number combo, that's for sure!
Edited by PhantomPH on Thursday 14th September 15:50
Robmarriott said:
How long have you worked for them, exactly?
If you're talking to me... I know only a bit about them, because I follow startups on both sides of the Atlantic. Some years ago when What 3 Words started to get media attention, they impressed me with the ridiculous imbalance between the simplicity of what they're doing and the tremendous potential value that's on offer. Clever stuff.
Some of the sceptical / slagging comments here did give me a chuckle.
I came across W3W at a Hackathon in Berlin a few years ago, it is one of those ideas that you wish you have thought of - a simple solution to a global problem of trying to pinpoint where to send aid or help to.
In the UK, think of the breakdown or emergency services using this - can help matrix signs show at the correct spot (instead of over a 5 mile area), or send the breakdown wagon to the correct actual location on the hard shoulder.
In Africa if you need to drop aid you can educate the population of a small village into learning a three word phrase, much easier than trying to teach them all the Long/Lat - especially in cultures or remote tribes where the decimal number system doesn't work.
I also believe the were looking at doing mapping in 3D too, so W3W can pinpoint the floor on a high rise building.
Glad to see it going more mainstream!
In the UK, think of the breakdown or emergency services using this - can help matrix signs show at the correct spot (instead of over a 5 mile area), or send the breakdown wagon to the correct actual location on the hard shoulder.
In Africa if you need to drop aid you can educate the population of a small village into learning a three word phrase, much easier than trying to teach them all the Long/Lat - especially in cultures or remote tribes where the decimal number system doesn't work.
I also believe the were looking at doing mapping in 3D too, so W3W can pinpoint the floor on a high rise building.
Glad to see it going more mainstream!
Robmarriott said:
duck.table.flower could be in Nottingham
dock.table.flower could be in Sydney
That's the point. They (the algorithm) picks squares thousands of miles way from each other. The Yodel bloke isn't going to turn up in Sydney, Oz, if he's already in the East Midlands is he? But at work we get dozens of delivery drivers telling us that they have spent 40 mins trying to find us because SatNav directions for our work postcode send them to a pub in the next village (or so they say....)dock.table.flower could be in Sydney
"3 word addresses are intentionally randomised and unrelated to the squares around them. To avoid confusion, similar sounding addresses are also placed as far from each other as possible. The app will account for spelling errors and other typing mistakes and make suggestions, based on 3 word addresses nearby."
"The what3words system uses a wordlist of up to 40,000 words, depending on the language version used. The algorithm sorts the list so that simpler and more common words are used in more populated areas, whilst longer words feature in unpopulated areas."
https://what3words.com/about/
Futse said:
Same thing I guess as asking an address now. If I book a holiday house or hotel, I don't know the address by heart, it's given to me by the company/website/owner. In the same way they would give you three random words with this system. Makes it easier to put in the satnav. I guess that's the point. Unless I'm missing something as well...
Just tried it in my phone's offline SatNav software (Navmii) and it works a treat. Once Google, Garmin and TomTom etc. are on board it will be simple to get anywhere with just the three words - no I don't work for them, I just like ingenious, simple ideas. 
SloaneSquare said:
RemarkLima said:
Sadly I can't see the Royal Mail giving up its stangle-hold on UK addressing easily, the fact they still charge for services that are the fundamentals of business is still just bizarre.
That said, I'd love to see something like this knock them into the dust and force them to innovate again.
Having as sat nav would be handy - where can we find out what our what3words are for our address?
I think that you will find Mercedes are thinking more globally than just the UK with this offering, for countries that do not operate a zip or postcode metrics. That said, I'd love to see something like this knock them into the dust and force them to innovate again.
Having as sat nav would be handy - where can we find out what our what3words are for our address?
PistonHeads said:
Currently available in 14 languages, the company is working to allow even more people to take advantage of it and with the official postal services of countries including Nigeria, Tonga and mongolia now utilising the technology, it surely won't be long before it makes its way here as well.
So, my comments were related to the articles assertion that it wouldn't be long before it's here... I disagree 
cookie1600 said:
Robmarriott said:
duck.table.flower could be in Nottingham
dock.table.flower could be in Sydney
That's the point. They (the algorithm) picks squares thousands of miles way from each other. The Yodel bloke isn't going to turn up in Sydney, Oz, if he's already in the East Midlands is he? But at work we get dozens of delivery drivers telling us that they have spent 40 mins trying to find us because SatNav directions for our work postcode send them to a pub in the next village (or so they say....)dock.table.flower could be in Sydney
"3 word addresses are intentionally randomised and unrelated to the squares around them. To avoid confusion, similar sounding addresses are also placed as far from each other as possible. The app will account for spelling errors and other typing mistakes and make suggestions, based on 3 word addresses nearby."
"The what3words system uses a wordlist of up to 40,000 words, depending on the language version used. The algorithm sorts the list so that simpler and more common words are used in more populated areas, whilst longer words feature in unpopulated areas."
https://what3words.com/about/
Don't get me wrong, I think it's a very clever idea (what3f
ks is worth a giggle too) and as much as it can be programmed to eliminate possible computer based issues, it doesn't account for someone misreading a label and putting it on the wrong van/plane/boat, human error will always be there.Besides, saying 'what a great idea' isn't as funny as making a joke about misplaced parcels!
tim milne said:
RemarkLima said:
Sadly I can't see the Royal Mail giving up its stangle-hold on UK addressing easily, the fact they still charge for services that are the fundamentals of business is still just bizarre.
That said, I'd love to see something like this knock them into the dust and force them to innovate again.
Having as sat nav would be handy - where can we find out what our what3words are for our address?
Annoying as Royal Mail are, the postcode system has one clear advantage over W3W or any other computer-based system — it's possible to understand it in its broader sense, even if the finer details are best left to postmen. Two addresses in BN19 might be a few miles (and not hundreds) from each other. That said, I'd love to see something like this knock them into the dust and force them to innovate again.
Having as sat nav would be handy - where can we find out what our what3words are for our address?
The problem with these digital mapping systems is that they make us entirely dependent on them and the devices that deliver them and even though Sat Navs and the likes of Waze mean we don't think about where we're going anymore, I think to hand over awareness of even the basic relationships between places to the computers is a human error.
1. It has no consistent pattern for the first half of the post code and no way to checksum, validate or mask for a valid post code that satisfies all cases
2. The data is proprietary and isn't cheap - most civilised nations offer full postcode data and mapping services free as it's of great benefit to many businesses and generates a lot of economic movement. The Royal Mail has stifled a lot of innovation in that space in this country with draconian licensing terms.
But that's another discussion
Robmarriott said:
I appreciate that your Uber driver isn't going to get on several ferries and neither will the Yodel guy but if, say, Amazon used it, they could send your rubber underwear to downtown Sydney.
I'm very careful about giving out my address for my rubber underwear. I don't want Mrs Cookie1600 questioning me about my personal issues. what.terrible.incontinence
with postcodes, you can spell them out phonetically to be absolutely certain when giving address details, something you can't be so absolute with in regard to words. brown/clown/down etc. regional accents could really cause a problem here...
also, it has all sorts of unprofessional overtones as well, imagine
bob smith
KPMG
canary wharf
london
monkey.butt.sniffer
Hmmmm
also, it has all sorts of unprofessional overtones as well, imagine
bob smith
KPMG
canary wharf
london
monkey.butt.sniffer
Hmmmm
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