Sick of wasting time in traffic on your commute when you could have taken BART? As a developer, you thought it might be hard to build something to help you "hack" your morning commute, but as it turns out, it's not as hard as you thought.
You don't even have to plan your route. Just ask Tom Watson!
To solve this daily annoyance, Upkar and Olivia created a simple, fun solution to a real world problem.
The project:
- Utilizes the NL of the Watson Chatbot to allow the commuter to ask questions and have a conversation.
- Interacts with the TomTom Traffic API to check for accidents on the Bay Bridge at the time of asking.
- Integrates via the Apache OpenWhisk Serverless platform.
All a user need do is ask something close to "Do I need to take the train today?", and the chat bot will let you know your best option for your morning work route!
This project was created to showcase how easily you can utlilize developer resources to create a simple solutions to a real-life problem, like making a car-less commute from the East Bay to San Francusco.
To use:
- Create a free account on TomTom's Developer Portal, and retrieve your API key.
- Follow the steps in Watson Assistant to install the json files needed for language, and begin interacting.
- Follow the steps under Serverless to create the TomTom integration.
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Upkar Lidder used to wonder how he might make his morning trip planning easier. If there was an accident on the bay bridge, it would turn his 30 minute trip into a 90 minute trip. There had to be a better way to decide between risking the bus and the holdup or simply taking BART. Having to plan his route in order to make the train on time seemed like an arduous task.
If only Upkar had Tom Watson, like he does today!
Olivia just moved to the bay, and had the same question trying to navigate public transportation in the area.