Route Planning with Parker Woodward

Ever wondered how route planning apps, well, plan routes? In this episode, we navigate through this fascinating topic, a field as data-driven and systemic as it is magical and compelling.  Joining us is Parker Woodward, Route Expert and Marketing Director for Route4Me. We discuss how route planning works, the intricacies behind it, and how services like Route4Me perform complex balancing acts between machine learning and user-generated feedback. This episode touches on the following key topics and ideas: 00:00:23 Introducing Parker 00:01:54 Becoming a Route Expert 00:04:22 Getting started through smaller startups 00:12:41 Leveraging technology for the greater good 00:14:36 The magic of route planning 00:23:30 Homomorphism and satisfiability 00:31:18 Geocoding 00:33:06 User-generated feedback 00:37:08 Importance of statistics knowledge 00:39:34 The degree of automation in route planning 00:42:54 Inverse decision-making 00:48:47 Operations Research 00:53:42 Dwarf Fortress 00:56:40 US vs European routes 00:57:51 What Route4Me does 01:05:38 Working at Route4Me 01:10:26 Route4Me API Resources mentioned in this episode: ToolsRoute4Me https://route4me.comRoute4Me API https://route4me.ioWaze https://www.waze.comGoogle Maps https://www.google.com/mapsOpenStreetMap https://www.openstreetmap.orgMapQuest https://www.mapquest.comDeepMind https://deepmind.com BooksSapiens by Yuval Noah Harari GamesDwarf Fortress http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/ LinksWaymo https://waymo.com/Upwork https://www.upwork.com/ Reach out to Parker via email: parker@routeforme.com Catch Parker on LinkedIn If you’ve enjoyed this episode, you can listen to more on Programming Throwdown’s website: https://www.programmingthrowdown.com/ Reach out to us via email: programmingthrowdown@gmail.com You can also follow Programming Throwdown on  Facebook | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Player.FM  Join the discussion on our Discord You can also help support Programming Throwdown through our Patreon ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★