There Is No Perfect Travel App—But These Will Help
Image collected
The low point, if I had to pick one, was probably Starbucks .
It was a Sunday morning, and I had just landed in Hong Kong—a city filled with Michelin-starred restaurants and legendary coffee shops. Yet there I stood, ordering a venti cold brew and a microwaved blueberry muffin in the Chipotle of caffeine.
How did I end up here? I typed “coffee” into Google Maps.
Sure, with enough time and patience I could have found something better. I could have sorted through the hundreds of reviews, all the “50 Best Places” and “29 Hidden Gems” stories, and the tips from various friends and co-workers. I could even have walked into the nearest store and hoped for the best.
But given the unfathomable amount of available data about me and all the places I could visit, travel apps ought to be better guides automatically.
My perfect, personalized, AI-powered travel app would start helping me the minute I decided to travel, maybe even before I knew where I was going. It might pull from Google’s knowledge of the places I’ve been, Facebook ’s log of where my friends go and Amazon’s list of things I tend to buy, to compile a personalized itinerary.
It would find me the perfect seat (aisle, exit row, not too far back) on the perfect flight (not too early, but get me there in time for dinner). It would help me through every traffic jam, security checkpoint and train system as if I came here often—wherever I was. The perfect trip is perfectly planned, and all I would need to do is show up.
Of course, this ideal travel app would have to tread a delicate privacy balance, between helping me travel and creeping me out. Any app that could collate all the available data about what I like could know me better than anyone, but do I really want all that data living in one place? Or with one company?
Many developers and companies are working on making travel easier and more personalized, and they are already starting to offer ways to make your travels a little smarter. None are even close to getting it right. But for each of the three phases of travel—planning the trip, getting there, and exploring your destination—there are apps that are beginning to figure it out.
That doesn’t mean your apps won’t sometimes point you to Starbucks.
Source: https://www.wsj.com