Waze's Burger: We'll help make traffic jams thing of the past

Dana Burger  photo: Tamar Matsafi
Dana Burger photo: Tamar Matsafi

Waze Israel country lead and director of sales Dana Burger spoke at yesterday's "Globes" Marketing, Media, Advertising, and Digital Conference.

"1.3 million people are killed every year in traffic accidents. Were this the result of war, would we remain indifferent? But imagine what would happen if I were to tell you that your children won't have to learn to drive and won't own a car," Waze Israel country lead and director of sales Dana Burger said at the outset of her speech at the "Globes" Marketing, Media, Advertising, and Digital Conference.

"After 100 years of motorized transportation, cars have radios and air-conditioners, but their rate of evolution isn't fast enough, certainly not if we compare it with the rate at which communications have developed," Burger stated in outlining her vision for future transportation. "Did you know that 50% of the real estate in the world is used for transportation purposes? Road, highways, parking lots, factories, and so forth - all of this just so that a car can stand still in a parking lot 95% of the time. Even when the car leaves the parking lot, we're alone in it most of the time. What about the other four seats? This is crazy and requires a real revolution. It's a necessity, because number of vehicles is increasing faster than the roads. There's no choice but to make a significant change.

"Our children probably won't have to drive. Think about the real estate opportunity - how much land will be available to us if we eliminate the Ayalon Highway. How many schools and parks could we put there? Waze spent its first decade mapping the world, but later we'll help reduce the number of vehicles on the road and make traffic jams a thing of the past through the shared transportation revolution. Tomorrow, I'll get into a car, activate the carpool feature, and we'll continue to the destination. The day after tomorrow, an autonomous car will collect all of us and we'll continue together to the destination."

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 10, 2018

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2018.

Dana Burger  photo: Tamar Matsafi
Dana Burger photo: Tamar Matsafi
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