Use of Whatsapp Live Location to assist on blats and multi car Road Trips

[Ian Kinder (Bagpuss) - Joint Peak District AO]

I've recently discovered the live location feature in Whatsapp and tested it last weekend on a blat into the peaks led by @Julie Hall - AO Representative, Peak District AO (as she'd whimped out and chose a Mazda for the drive, I had time to play). I was second place in the convoy and @Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Secretary was towards the rear in his 'Hill Billy Monster Truck'.

Dave and I started a Whatsapp chat before the run and both enable share live location with each other (you can chose a time period to suit from 15 mins to 8 Hours (you can cancel it later, if you don't what to be followed home!).

The screen shots below are from an Iphone though I'm sure an Android phone would be similar:

Then select 'Share live location'

Any of the people in the chat (can be two people or higher), can then click on the live location link they will receive and a map will show their location and the others in the chat.

Here's a typical screen shot showing Me and Dave a few hundred metres behind.

The map will scroll as you drive based on which ever circle you clicked on.

Here's a video of us driving through a couple of roundabouts in Ashbourne 

 

Here's anothe video where Dave's car is in focus and the map scrolls to keep him in view.

 

 

Have a play with it (obviously safely and with the phone fixed to the car)! 

I think it will really help the lead car see where are the others are and also allow any that get lost/seperated to catch up. 

It doesn't use lots of data but does need a phone signal to work, which isn't guaranteeed UK wide and a in lot of the  Peaks!

 

 

 

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

It works really well, (bar the phone signal caveat), at one point allowing me to see where the group ahead had turned off on to a B road, that the sat nav was avoiding, (I had the ultimate destination programmed in), even though at that point, I didn’t have a visual on the lead cars of the group, that already turned.

 

[Rory's Dad]

Don't like the sound of this... 

The idea is to go as slow as the car behind - you will therefore all stay together! 

[Kingster]

15 minutes ago, Rory's Dad said:

Don't like the sound of this... 

The idea is to go as slow as the car behind - you will therefore all stay together! 

In practice it doesn’t always work like that especially in a larger group. 

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

26 minutes ago, Rory's Dad said:

Don't like the sound of this... 

The idea is to go as slow as the car behind - you will therefore all stay together! 

Doesn’t work well on dangerously narrow Peak District roads. To do that on the example I quoted would have caused as serious bottle neck on a nasty stretch of road. It would also subconsciously cause drivers to the rear to try overly hard to keep up.

This has a major benefit in reducing the subconscious “pressure” amongst drivers to keep close to the car in front and to block others from passing.

[Rory's Dad]

It worked perfectly well on narrow Yorkshire roads... 

The idea is to drive as slowly as you need so none of this applies... 

5 minutes ago, Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Secretary said:

it would also subconsciously cause drivers to the rear to try overly hard to keep up.

This has a major benefit in reducing the subconscious “pressure” amongst drivers to keep close to the car in front and to block others from passing.

 

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

Just now, Rory's Dad said:

It worked perfectly well on narrow Yorkshire roads... 

The idea is to drive as slowly as you need so none of this applies... 

 

You’re missing the point though. There will always be other drivers who get sepperated, it just happens - I’ve had it happen to me on one of your Peak District run several years ago. No biggie, I was able to put the hammer down and catch up. The point of this is that I could have rejoined your group much more easily. Equally, you always be confident you knew where I was, without trying to keep all of the cars in sight behind you on twisty roads with poor sight lines.

It’s planning for the unexpected.

 

 

[Stu Faulkner]

I think it’s a great idea. 

It means you can relax and enjoy the drive rather than worrying about keeping up at every junction. 

 

[Ian Kinder (Bagpuss) - Joint Peak District AO]

1 hour ago, Rory's Dad said:

Don't like the sound of this... 

The idea is to go as slow as the car behind - you will therefore all stay together! 

Agree in principle. This just helps deal with roundabouts/raffic lights etc when a group or 3 or more can easily get split up. If this happens we usually end parked up waiting not always in the best spot (trying to remain visible for the cars stuck behind) which can inconvienence/ annoy other road users. At least with this, the leader can carry on a bit further and stop somewhere safer. 

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

It also gives the leader some more peace of mind should there be any break downs towards the back of the group that go un-noticed by the immediately pre-ceding cars.

Could save a lot of backtracking.

If you look back through the many times I’ve posted group blatting  guidelines as “good practice”, including  keeping to the RTA when travelling in large numbers, and the practice of always keeping the car behind in sight, and slowing off the pace if you do loose them, stopping at deviations from the road you’re on, till certain the car behind knows you’re turning off etc. 

And reminding group leaders that those at the back of large groups always have to both slow and accelerate harder to keep up, as well as having to (frequently) travel faster than those at the front.

I do think these sorts of Apps, (whether WhatsApp or some alternative), could be a real game changer in terms of comfort and safety for those travelling as part of the larger group tours and events. Let’s not forget, we are talking the larger groups here! Whilst you could obviously do it for groups of three or four, it’s where you’ve got double that and more that it comes in to its own. Between junctions, traffic lights etc and just random behaviour from other road users, it’s just not always possible, no matter how well organised and how well behaved to keep a group of eight, ten, twelve or more cars, line astern in order all the time, not when occasionally towns or the outskirts of built up areas must be safely navigated. And of course in heavier traffic, as does sometimes happen to many of us, even as leader, you just cannot watch behind, all the time. Nor with a larger number of cars behind you can you always see the ones towards the back of the group. This in turn splits the average persons concentration, just like it does for those towards the back that are driving along with only occasional sight of the lead cars.

Blats become so much more relaxing and more enjoyable, when regardless of your position in the convoy, you loose that anxiety about getting sepperated from part of the group and lost. It also reduces the chance of perhaps less experienced members of the team, behaving rashly!

[Rory's Dad]

1 hour ago, Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Secretary said:

... without trying to keep all of the cars in sight behind you on twisty roads with poor sight lines

No - it's just one car, not all of them!! 

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

Just now, Rory's Dad said:

No - it's just one car, not all of them!! 

And I’ve still witnessed that system break down, as good as it is, and as many times as I’ve been in hear beating the drum for groups to adopt it.

[Rory's Dad]

I'd much prefer to sort this out properly rather than pratt around with a phone app which I can't see cos the sun is shining! 

[Kingster]

48 minutes ago, Rory's Dad said:

I'd much prefer to sort this out properly rather than pratt around with a phone app which I can't see cos the sun is shining! 

But you can’t rely on everyone behaving as you would like them to. 

It just takes one person to lose track of the person behind them (perhaps because they were quite rightly concentrating on what was in front!) and then the group is split. Once that happens and you hit traffic lights and/or junctions you can then spend a lot of time wonder if someone has broken down or got lost etc. 

At least with this system you’d know where they were. 

[Captain Colonial]

/obvious meme is obvious