F1 Expo Aims for Wide Appeal
The Formula One expo will be at the Convention Center through Sunday. Tickets are $15. Photo by Filipa Rodrigues/KUT NewsAudio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Formula One organizers are trying to drum up excitement this weekend for a sport that is not well known to Central Texans. But the F1 expo at the Austin Convention Center might have something that appeals to people who have no interest in racing.
The Convention Center will be filled with the things you’d expect from a Formula One expo: shiny race cars, action photos and driving simulators, trying to give Austinites a taste of what to expect come race day. But some companies are on hand that you might not expect to see. One of them is showcasing an iPhone app called Traffic Bug.
“Traffic Bug is a GPS navigation app, just like a lot of the ones that are out there,” said Terry Pallotto, co-founder of Mygistics, the app’s creator. “But the difference is the primary focus is getting people where they need to be when they want to be there.”
Traffic Bug takes GPS information and tells you whether your route is running normally or you’re in for some traffic. If there’s a better route, the app will give you that option.
Pallotto says his company is in talks with the city of Austin to come up with a predictive model for the first Formula One race, Nov. 16-18. About 300,000 people are expected to descend upon Austin over the weekend, snarling traffic and making the drive to the race track three hours long.
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