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According to their site, there's an update available.

TomTom, for whatever reason, is assuming 230 working days a year. You'd know this if you checked their page. It shows up in a little pop-up when you mouse over.

That works out to 88 hours and 10 minutes, but they may be rounding their data for convenience, still, it is clearly from TomTom, as seen in the dated screenshot. Finding another 20 minutes to take the average up could come from truncating 23 minutes and 20 seconds down.

My last Tomtom crashed spectacularly to a CE desktop

That would be surprising, considering that Tomtom runs on Linux.

They could have purchased TomTom, for example and had everything up and running immediately.

I think it's a bit more complicated than that. From Apple's mapping attribution page:

© 2006-2012 TomTom
Business listings data © Acxiom, 2012.
Map data © AND.
Property parcel data for USA. © CoreLogic Inc., 2012.
Satellite imagery data © DigitalGlobe, 2012.
Map and postal data © DMTI, 2012. This software contains Postal Code OM Data copied by Apple under a sub-license from DMTI Spatial Inc., a party directly licensed by Canada Post Corporation. The Canada Post Corporation file from which this data was copied is dated 2012.
Business listings data © Factual 2012.
Map data © Getchee, 2012.
© INCREMENT P CORP., 2012, http://www.incrementp.co.jp/gc01info/e/legal01.html.
Map data © Intermap, 2012.
Map data © LeadDog, 2012.
Business listings data © Localeze, 2012.
Mapping data for Australia and New Zealand. © MapData Services Pty Ltd., 2012, PSMA http://www.nowwhere.com.au/lic/NowWhereLic.htm.
Map data © MDA Information Systems, Inc., 2012.
Neighborhood data © Urban Mapping, 2012.
Map data © 2012 Waze.
âoeReviews from Yelpâ Yelp, 2012.
(CanVec)
© Department of Natural Resources Canada. All rights reserved.
http://www.geogratis.gc.ca/geogratis/en/index.html
(CGIAR-CSI SRTM)
CGIAR Consortium for Spatial Information, http://srtm.csi.cgiar.org/
Flickr Shapefiles Public Dataset, Version 1.0, http://www.flickr.com/
(GeoNames)
GeoNames and contributors, http://www.geonames.org.
(GlobCover)
© ESA 2010 and UCLouvain, http://www.esa.int/esaEO/index.html

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, http://www.nasa.gov

Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2012. Contains Royal Mail data © Royal Mail copyright and database right 2012. http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/

(OSDM)
© Commonwealth of Australia, 2012. This data has been used with the permission of the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth has not evaluated the data as altered and incorporated within this software, and therefore gives no warranty regarding its accuracy, completeness, currency or suitability for any particular purpose. http://spatial.gov.au

(OSM)
OpenStreetMap contributors, http://www.openstreetmap.org/
(StatCan)
Statistics Canada, http://www.statcan.gc.ca
(TIGER/Line® fi

One point where Open Street Map shines is that it has actual roads and trails in such places as National Parks and forests...where the commercial maps have nothing but blank green areas.

Yep. For example, here is a place in the Alps in openstreetmap, and here is the same place in google maps, and here is the same thing in routes.tomtom.com. Only openstreetmap shows the hiking trail (as well as peaks with their elevations, and mountain huts). This is a really good thing for hikers, runners and mountain bikers.

You can also get topo maps based on OSM data from toposm.com, although this still seems pretty primitive and they only cover the US. Google's maps with contour shading are OK, but they don't let you print them through their web interface (although you can always print a screenshot), and they don't show contour lines.

What isn't so great about OSM is that driving directions from yournavigation.org are not usable at all. Also, the search functionality is (not surprisingly) inferior to the one in google maps -- if you don't put in exactly the right form of the name, it doesn't work.

if you want to you could try out TomToms online map. The map itself looks a bit odd ( I think it might be the colors or the fonts used) but the one feature that I like, is the traffic reports. I did a test search for you. The link is here: http://routes.tomtom.com/route/2233%2520Loma%2520Alta%2520Dr%252C%2520Fullerton%252C%2520CA%252C%2520US%254033.889072%252C-117.96456%2540-1/Mount%2520Baldy%2520Rd%252C%2520Valyermo%252C%2520CA%252C%2520US%254034.18236%252C-117.67789%2540-1/?leave=now&traffic=true&center=34.032343635396%2C-117.8938025&zoom=8&map=basic I'm not sure if I found the streets you mentioned.

I wish I could have posted this further up, but this is about as high to the top as I can get.

Doesn't everyone realize the "tom tom pro 3100" won't be able to communicate without some sort of data plan? TomTom offers plans now that will send you traffic information based upon your location but there is a yearly fee for that information. Anyone want to pay to tell the insurance company you were going 10mph over today so your premiums go up? Didn't think so.

Having to pay hundreds for the device and then pay an additional fee for data is killing the stand-alone GPS market. Apps like waze provide GPS routing and real-time traffic information (including location of police speed-traps) for free, all you need is a smartphone. TomTom's grasping at straws with this press release, their market is drying up and they know it. Why pay $300+ and $60+ a year for something that's already free on your phone?

Waze even provides real time road updates by users. For example I can report an accident and the location is marked for other users to see live. TomTom's can't do that.

I have two TomToms. One's an older TomTom ONE and the other is a 5" TomTom XXL. I don't use either one, I use Waze.

Perhaps you should stop underestimating other people.
1) http://www.tomtom.com/page/iq-routes
2) ideas are definitely NOT the hardest part. I thought of portable wearable servers to augment humans and enable virtual telepathy and virtual telekinesis, about 20 years ago. Add brain-computer interfaces or similar, add "brain pattern macros" and you can think of something and your brain augmenter will use the pattern to try to recall data that you have stored using a similar brain pattern, based also on your current context (time, date, Day of Week, holiday status, location, driving, and historical context). The BCI technology exists but it's not mature for safe long-term implantation into humans. That's another difficult part (not the idea - everyone has had the idea of interfacing computers with humans for decades, the frigging difficulty is doing it safely enough so you don't get sued to oblivion when it goes wrong).

I also thought of purely digital speakers about 30 years ago. Basically you have the speaker cone/diaphragm controlled by a very powerful voice-coil, with its position measured very quickly with use of stuff like gray code or optical interference patterns. Then you use that as negative feedback to put the diaphragm exactly where you want it to be based on the digital audio signal (you'd have to adjust based on the volume setting).

Then as an upgrade you add "historical feedback" - a HiFi system that practices and learns: what you do is to place microphones in the room, then have the system playback the desired audiotrack and measure it, then adjust things so that the next playback is closer to what the original sounded, repeat each time (practice). Analogy: a basketballer actually uses a combination of closed-loop and open-loop control to throw a ball into a hoop. Based on the "experience" after lots of practice he adjusts his throw better than it could have been with pure "negative feedback" alone. So the hi-fi system could practice playing back an audio track in a particular room with a person (extra objects change audio characteristics of room) till it's as good as it can get. Whereas conventional hi-fi system does not learn and will keep trying to play things the same way even if the room audio characteristics are different.

I have plenty more ideas. I'm happy if others actually implement them - I'm not getting younger. But I'm not fine if they get a monopoly on the ideas. I don't see why anyone should.

Ideas are fucking easy. Getting things done is the tricky bit. And from what I see nowadays patents make getting things done harder than easier.

Compare the Newton and the iPhone. Both could be covered by the same broad patents. But one was more successful and arguably better than the other. Why? Because of what's written in those patents, or the actual implementation, marketing, distribution, readiness of market?

How about.... BRIAN BLESSED?

You can get a BRIAN BLESSED voice for Tom Tom navigators. Check out this sample:
http://brianblessed.tomtom.com/index-brianblessed.php?Lid=1

"Anonymous" GPS traces that start and/or end with your home every day are not anonymous.

How is "average speed for all travelers on [road] is 45mph" not anonymous?

The data is stored as aggregate averages, not: "Path 25634, by user 512512: from 21 spooner street, to 742 evergreen terrace, at 9:21 pm, avg-speed 55mph."

Straight from the Tomtom site
We make all traffic data anonymous. We can never trace it back to you or your device.

Also, if you're still uneasy about it, you can opt-out (actually, only "LIVE" series devices are opted-in by default):
We ask for your permission to collect historical data. You can opt in or opt out and can disable
the data collection function at any time.

If this were a US company, I'd agree with you wholeheartedly; but it seems the EU has privacy laws with some teeth.

http://corporate.tomtom.com/contactus.cfm

Send the a message directly. I think that'll be a great way to slashdo... err I mean get the message across to them.

Directly from the manufacturer, of course.

"It's a persistent myth that only the beating of tom-toms restores the sun after an eclipse. But is that really true?"

why would you want to beat tomtoms ? :/

on a more serious note, that part about "common myth" is just stupid. no unix-like system admin i've met has advocated for that. quite the contrary, all of them have argued heavily against it and for finding the root cause of the problem.

the only ones who have screamed "reboot !" were windows people who were trying to figure out this linux thing.

an important thing to note is that i don't see such a claim (about persistent myth) in the article - seems to be an artistic (read, crap) submission. also, splitting that short article on two pages makes me want to kick them hard when accessing it over gprs.

But... but Tom Tom have Yoda!

This is more of a show that if US shows up to defend Taiwan, the China can cripple US military without resorting to nuclear weapons.

Well, not really. They can cripple US civillian's TomToms, leading to some yelling and confusion on the freeways. I forsee several hundred 80-year-old men in mini-vans crumpling their fenders.

TomTom has been using cell phone location data, provided by Vodafone, since 2006 for traffic (congestions and travel times) information. See it at work (for free) here: TomTom HD Traffic

Indeed! So, Let's take a TomTom Go Live 740 (The most expensive one listed under car navigation) at $349.95. That's SatNav and one year of map updates free. One year of map updates is $39.80. That's a total of 389.75 for two years of SatNav and updated maps.

Take an average Sat-Nav capable phone (purposefully not choosing iPhone): HTC Pure on AT&T is $49.99 before you even start choosing your tariff, and requires a two year $30 per month data contract. That's already $769.99, and we haven't paid the $100 for your navigation app yet. Oh, and we also don't have the extra year of map updates.

I can't see the plans for this phone, as I'm not a US citizen, but already I can see that getting a smartphone for satnav capabilities is just idiotic. If you have other uses for the smartphone, then yes you're saving money.

Don't ever think that using your mobile phone as satellite navigation is the cheap option, though.

Indeed! So, Let's take a TomTom Go Live 740 (The most expensive one listed under car navigation) at $349.95. That's SatNav and one year of map updates free. One year of map updates is $39.80. That's a total of 389.75 for two years of SatNav and updated maps.

Take an average Sat-Nav capable phone (purposefully not choosing iPhone): HTC Pure on AT&T is $49.99 before you even start choosing your tariff, and requires a two year $30 per month data contract. That's already $769.99, and we haven't paid the $100 for your navigation app yet. Oh, and we also don't have the extra year of map updates.

I can't see the plans for this phone, as I'm not a US citizen, but already I can see that getting a smartphone for satnav capabilities is just idiotic. If you have other uses for the smartphone, then yes you're saving money.

Don't ever think that using your mobile phone as satellite navigation is the cheap option, though.

Yes, TomTom on the iPhone will reroute you around traffic (thought, just like TomTom, TomTom on the iPhone is not free). The same goes for TomTom on Windows Mobile. The Service by Nokia will do the same as well (thought, I've never actually tried it on Nokia, since this announcement of the free service is still pretty fresh, on my Nokia E71 I've been running AmazeGPS in the background to listen to the turn-by-turn directions with Google Latitude/Traffic running on the foreground to look at the traffic flow, both are free applications on Nokia).

Now, I don't know about Android in general, but from what I've seen on the Nexus One, the turn-by-turn directions are finally done very well. I can only assume that they also include the traffic information in their calculations. With Google Latitude, Google is getting and publishing real-time traffic information everywhere, even on the small roads not normally tracked by the CalTrans (FastTrack) silent sensors.

You should look into TomTom for the iPhone (it's sold as a car kit + an iPhone app). It's more expensive than a standalone gps (since the low end gps units can now be seen on sale for $80 or less), but the combined integration makes it far superior and far more usable than any top-of-the-line standalone gps device (in my opinion).

The car kit solves the problem of the battery life (with your iPhone being on for so long). It also has an external speaker and a mic, plus it pipes in your iPhone music to your stereo. The integration allows you to listen to music and get it muted when you receive a phone call, or get audio traffic alerts/directions/red light camera alerts. It also integrates nicely into your existing address book (and your web browser).

Damn, I sound like a TomTom shill (which I'm not). I just did the research to buy this for a relative. Just take a look at its customer reviews on iTunes. They're not stellar, but they're still pretty good.

This one is over 1 GB.

It's relevant because of the attempt to choose GPLv2. If the contribution were under the GPLv2 as the /. submitter wrote, users would not enjoy the same freedom from patent harm as they would under GPLv3. As the FSF points out,

Whenever someone conveys software covered by GPLv3 that they've written or modified, they must provide every recipient with any patent licenses necessary to exercise the rights that the GPL gives them. In addition to that, if any licensee tries to use a patent suit to stop another user from exercising those rights, their license will be terminated.

What this means for users and developers is that they'll be able to work with GPLv3-covered software without worrying that a desperate contributor will try to sue them for patent infringement later. With these changes, GPLv3 affords its users more defenses against patent aggression than any other free software license.

Other consequences that should pique user's interests are consequences of a GPLv2-only licensing: users will not enjoy other GPL improvements such as the more lenient attitude toward license violation found in GPLv3. GPLv2 cuts off a violators rights immediately and irrevocably upon violation. The violator has to beg the copyright holder(s) to restore the rights they had under the GPL. This is the case in most other free software licenses as well. Not so under GPLv3:

GPLv3 offers a reprieve for good behavior: if you violate the license, you'll get your rights back once you stop the violation, unless a copyright holder contacts you within 60 days. After you receive such a notice, you can have your rights fully restored if you're a first-time violator and correct the violation within 30 days. Otherwise, you can work out the issue on a case-by-case basis with the copyright holders who contacted you, and your rights will be restored afterward.

What should also concern users (and what makes OpenLR unsuitable for any use) is the additional term TomTom tries to add on to their use of the GPLv2:

The assertion by licensee of any intellectual property claim with respect to OpenLR against TomTom International B.V., Tele Atlas or any affiliate or parent company of TomTom and Tele Atlas shall be deemed a breach by licensee of this Agreement and the license shall automatically terminate.

This clause would, for example, prohibit me from enforcing my patents, trademarks, mask rights, copyrights, or any of the other rights subsumed under the horribly unclear term "intellectual property" without losing my rights under the GPLv2 for OpenLR. Perhaps TomTom has a popcorn maker in their lobby for which I hold a patent and TomTom is using that popcorn maker without licensing my patent. Perhaps TomTom is diluting a trademark I own. Perhaps TomTom is playing music in their building copyrighted to me and I haven't granted them permission for playing that copyrighted recording. Defending any of these violations means I automatically lose my license on OpenLR and this could prevent me from using software which depends on that license. This is an additional requirement on top of the GPL, and the GPL prohibits it. So as far as I'm concerned, OpenLR isn't licensed to anyone at all under GPL despite TomTom's intentions to the contrary.

As the FSF once said of Apple, I say of TomTom: TomTom's action is an example of the effects of the "open source" movement: of its plan to appeal to busine

System code, released under GPL.

http://www.tomtom.com/page.php?Page=gpl

HTC Titan with GPS Chip

I've had the HTC Titan (Sprint Mogul PPC-6800) phone since it came out and it has a real GPSOne chip inside for aGPS satelite reception and not just cell tower ID triangulation for fake GPS. Before that I had the HTC Apache (Sprint PCC-6700) that required a separate GPS Receiver connected by Bluetooth and that also worked great since I only had to turn on the receiver when navigating.

Mount and Charger

I use the cheap Arkon CM929-S phone mount to keep my phone in-front of me connected to an air-vent while I drive and also the Motorola Mini-USB Car Charger for keeping my phone powered up during long trips.

TomTom Navigator 6 and 7

I've been using TomTom Navigator version 6 and now 7 installed on this phone running Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.0, 6.1, and soon 6.5. I've used my phone to navigate here in the US, Canada, and also in Europe without any problems at all, except for having to copying the 500MB maps to my storage card before I go, since I only had a 1 GB storage card. If I had a large capacity SDHC storage card then I could keep all the maps on it for the entire world.

PPCKitchen BuildOS and Radio ROM Firmware

I've been taking advantage of the phone customization software such as PPCKitchen BuildOS software for creating and loading customized and updated versions of Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system builds on to my phone that allowed me to go from 6.0, to 6.1, and now to 6.5. I've been updating the Radio ROM firmware on my phone with the instructions from XDA Developer Wiki page for HTC Titan to the latest releases to enable GPS functionality on this phone since the original release of the phone did not have the Radio ROM firmware to allow interfacing with the GPS chip until Sprint released it a year after the phone became available.

Little Inconveniences

Since Sprint uses the US only CDMA network cell phone standard I couldn't use my phone in Europe to make calls but I still retained the full GPS functionality. On top of this we use Google Maps software loaded on these phones for locating stores and saving them as contacts so we can then use TomTom to navigate to those contacts. Everything works great except when Google Maps decides to be lazy and not save the zip-code in the address in the contact or when the address line in the contact includes additional numbers such as apartment or suite then TomTom gets confused thinking those are street numbers since they match European address standards such as "16 Main Street Suite 2" to "16/2 Main Street". We then have to manually edit the contact to remove the apartment or suite number and add the zip code, it is a pain and we are waiting for TomTom to fix their software since this bug existed sine version 6 and now with 7.450.

Convenience Through Convergence

My wife also uses the same exact phone since we share the same phone plan and company and she loves the ability to be able to take the car and go anywhere she wants with her friends without worry

Actually, the TomTom already runs Linux, and there's an established project for hacking it - OpenTom. Source code for the FOSS bits and notes on the toolchain TomTom use at www.tomtom.com.

Ala TomTom's MapShare or Google's Wiki layer?

someone else who thinks that SatNav is a 21st century invention.

From http://investors.tomtom.com/overview.cfm?Language=1

"TomTom was founded by Harold Goddijn, Peter-Frans Pauwels and Pieter Geelen in 1991"

That'll be 4 years before Win95

and that would be about a decade after the first versions of autoroute which MS own. seriously Ms was not the first, but they certainly own technology that is a LOT older than Tom Tom the company.

Even though Microsoft streets used to ship with win95, way before TomTom existed,

someone else who thinks that SatNav is a 21st century invention.

From http://investors.tomtom.com/overview.cfm?Language=1

"TomTom was founded by Harold Goddijn, Peter-Frans Pauwels and Pieter Geelen in 1991"

That'll be 4 years before Win95.

MS Virtual Earth has been around since the 1990's.

So has TomTom.

Never mind, it was a "beware of the leopard" ordeal. http://www.tomtom.com/page.php?Page=gpl

Tom Tom Home

TomTom HOME is our free software program that gives you access to a huge array of services as well as the global community of TomTom users. It is the only tool you need to manage, update and personalize your TomTom to enjoy a premium navigation experience: buy and install maps, make back-ups, download free software updates, shop and much more.

Since a Tom Tom owner will be installing software on their PC or Mac anyhow the addition of an ext2 driver would be innocuous.

"If TomTom would use its patent pool to cross license patents with MS to resolve the situation, where does this violate GPL2 (which is a copyright license)?"

'7. If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues), conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not excuse you from the conditions of this License'

'If you cannot distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you may not distribute the Program at all. For example, if a patent license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to refrain entirely from distribution of the Program'

They've also made their 'distro' available, see http://freshmeat.net/projects/ttlinux/ and their gpl page http://www.tomtom.com/page.php?Page=gpl

TomTom were found to be a gpl violator in '04, sued Garmin in '07 and Toyota in '08 for infringing TomTom patents, and have a very restrictive EULA.

and most of the consumer gps units i've seen already do something similar when you pair it with a mobile - like tomtom buddies: http://www.tomtom.com/plus/service.php?ID=11&Lid=4

its not a particularly new feature, and was pretty much inevitable the moment they started kitting out phones with gps receivers - surely?

It does not require each of those drivers to have TomTom devices. It does not require the cell phones to have GPS trackers. It does not require the cell phones to use air time or have unlimited data plans, or even have the ability to connect to the internet.

Which was critical in the beginning when there weren't many Nav systems out there and wireless data service via cell phone wasn't a commodity.

The "chicken and egg" and "critical mass" problems are solved by combining traffic data from several different source, and getting a lot more data points than we would get if we only collected data from drivers who have a TomTom that's always connected to the internet with an unlimited data plan.

Sounds more like "were" solved; like I said before in the post you're responding to, this was probably a killer feature when there weren't many Nav systems out there.

The other question is how to TomTom users receive this real time traffic information. The TomTom devices that support HD traffic have their own cell phones with built-in SIM cards, whose cost is covered by the HD traffic subscription, so it can download traffic reports in real time. It does not require you to drain the batteries and increase the bill of your own cell phone. The TomTom device is usually plugged into the car charger.

That's great, although I think the number of mobile phone users with limited data plans are dwindling fast, besides, if they're paying for the dataplan on the TomTom embedded cell phone, why not just pay for that same data on their main phone instead? You're not streaming video; I doubt anyone would notice the battery loss from getting time between point info on the three most likely routes, nor transmitting the time it took to drive between two points; pretty low-bandwidth stuff.

There's another feature called "IQ Routes" that enables TomTom to plan intelligent routes even when they're not connected to the internet, based on historical time sensitive information. Traffic on different roads has different speeds at different times of day and different weekdays, so IQ Routes measures that, and takes it into account when planning routes. Then HD traffic can add another layer of real time traffic information to make the routes even more accurate.

TomTom devices (even if they're not connected to the internet live) can record the speed you drive along the roads you travel, and if you choose to opt in, they anonymize and upload that data when you hot-sync your device to your PC or Mac (using your computer's internet connection instead of requiring a wireless data plan). Then they download the aggregation of all other TomTom user's traffic speed information. So each time you hot-sync, you get fresh traffic data based on the latest measurements of many other TomTom users.

Definitely another kick-ass, clever method of getting traffic info, which will probably outlive the former.

I think the 1st method (triangulating cell signals to determine traffic speed/embedding a dedicated cell phone in the Nav unit for receiving data/etc.) has a limited future; great technology/strategy in the beginning with a low density of devices deployed (especially when you can take advantage of another device that _is_ widely deployed, even though you are getting less precise data), or when adequate cheap mobile bandwidth wasn't a given, however as time goes on it will just be a more complex and costly than necessary to get the job done. Convergence rather than duplication here is a no-brainer. If TomTom doesn't do it, one of your competitors will and will force the issue for you; they'll get rid of the embedded mobile phone and sell a smaller Nav unit for a higher profit margin.

The 2nd method (currently store and forwarding the data when a user syncs their Nav unit to their PC, and the PC syncing to TomTom/more broadly stated as "let the GPS worry a

TomTom's "HD Traffic" gets information on traffic speed from all drivers who have a Vodaphone cell phone in their car.

It does not require each of those drivers to have TomTom devices. It does not require the cell phones to have GPS trackers. It does not require the cell phones to use air time or have unlimited data plans, or even have the ability to connect to the internet.

[Disclosure: I work for TomTom. Whenever I go down to the lunch room, I walk by the HD traffic control center where they collect and distribute all the traffic information -- it has a glass wall like a fish tank with a big screen in front displaying the live traffic feeds.]

The "chicken and egg" and "critical mass" problems are solved by combining traffic data from several different source, and getting a lot more data points than we would get if we only collected data from drivers who have a TomTom that's always connected to the internet with an unlimited data plan.

The other question is how to TomTom users receive this real time traffic information. The TomTom devices that support HD traffic have their own cell phones with built-in SIM cards, whose cost is covered by the HD traffic subscription, so it can download traffic reports in real time. It does not require you to drain the batteries and increase the bill of your own cell phone. The TomTom device is usually plugged into the car charger.

There's another feature called "IQ Routes" that enables TomTom to plan intelligent routes even when they're not connected to the internet, based on historical time sensitive information. Traffic on different roads has different speeds at different times of day and different weekdays, so IQ Routes measures that, and takes it into account when planning routes. Then HD traffic can add another layer of real time traffic information to make the routes even more accurate.

TomTom devices (even if they're not connected to the internet live) can record the speed you drive along the roads you travel, and if you choose to opt in, they anonymize and upload that data when you hot-sync your device to your PC or Mac (using your computer's internet connection instead of requiring a wireless data plan). Then they download the aggregation of all other TomTom user's traffic speed information. So each time you hot-sync, you get fresh traffic data based on the latest measurements of many other TomTom users.

All this data is also fed back into improving the maps, correcting mistakes, and tracking changes. Since the roads are always changing, you can get a discount by subscribing to map updates, to get fresh maps and points of interest updated regularly. We also offer traffic camera (speed trap) subscriptions, so the TomTom can warn you to slow down before you get speeding tickets.

-Don

TomTom's "HD Traffic" gets information on traffic speed from all drivers who have a Vodaphone cell phone in their car.

It does not require each of those drivers to have TomTom devices. It does not require the cell phones to have GPS trackers. It does not require the cell phones to use air time or have unlimited data plans, or even have the ability to connect to the internet.

[Disclosure: I work for TomTom. Whenever I go down to the lunch room, I walk by the HD traffic control center where they collect and distribute all the traffic information -- it has a glass wall like a fish tank with a big screen in front displaying the live traffic feeds.]

The "chicken and egg" and "critical mass" problems are solved by combining traffic data from several different source, and getting a lot more data points than we would get if we only collected data from drivers who have a TomTom that's always connected to the internet with an unlimited data plan.

The other question is how to TomTom users receive this real time traffic information. The TomTom devices that support HD traffic have their own cell phones with built-in SIM cards, whose cost is covered by the HD traffic subscription, so it can download traffic reports in real time. It does not require you to drain the batteries and increase the bill of your own cell phone. The TomTom device is usually plugged into the car charger.

There's another feature called "IQ Routes" that enables TomTom to plan intelligent routes even when they're not connected to the internet, based on historical time sensitive information. Traffic on different roads has different speeds at different times of day and different weekdays, so IQ Routes measures that, and takes it into account when planning routes. Then HD traffic can add another layer of real time traffic information to make the routes even more accurate.

TomTom devices (even if they're not connected to the internet live) can record the speed you drive along the roads you travel, and if you choose to opt in, they anonymize and upload that data when you hot-sync your device to your PC or Mac (using your computer's internet connection instead of requiring a wireless data plan). Then they download the aggregation of all other TomTom user's traffic speed information. So each time you hot-sync, you get fresh traffic data based on the latest measurements of many other TomTom users.

All this data is also fed back into improving the maps, correcting mistakes, and tracking changes. Since the roads are always changing, you can get a discount by subscribing to map updates, to get fresh maps and points of interest updated regularly. We also offer traffic camera (speed trap) subscriptions, so the TomTom can warn you to slow down before you get speeding tickets.

-Don

How is this news? AFAIK TomTom uses this technique for their traffic services for *ages*.

As navigation systems in the U.S. (at least in urban areas) have already passed the critical mass point, it seems a more intelligent way to do this would be to use the GPS info from the Nav system itself to record speed (or time between two intersections really) and just use the phone as a Bluetooth bridge to the Internet. Precise updates, no cell tower triangulation approximation needed. Triangulation from the towers is awesome use of already existing information though for sure and was probably a good solution to an initial Chicken or Egg problem.

TomTom takes anonymized location information from mobile phone handsets in The Netherlands, and make traffic reports they call HD traffic.

The handsets are not (necessarily) equipped with GPS chips, but their location is triangulated by the GSM network itself. The mobile network (Vodafone NL) supplies the information to TomTom, who then process it into traffic reports.

They claim to cover 10 times more roadarea than conventional traffic detection that uses inductive loops embedded in the roads. (The conventional system is already quite extensive in The Netherlands, which is a small and densely populated country). I seem to recall TomTom also have some sort of patent.

It's already commercially available here in the Netherlands. Tomtom teamed up with vodaphone, which can locate their mobile phones location and speed (not necessarily GPS needed) . This is fed to tomtom, which displays it on your navigation system. More info here

TomTom takes anonymized location information from mobile phone handsets in The Netherlands, and make traffic reports they call HD traffic.

The handsets are not (necessarily) equipped with GPS chips, but their location is triangulated by the GSM network itself. The mobile network (Vodafone NL) supplies the information to TomTom, who then process it into traffic reports.

They claim to cover 10 times more roadarea than conventional traffic detection that uses inductive loops embedded in the roads. (The conventional system is already quite extensive in The Netherlands, which is a small and densely populated country). I seem to recall TomTom also have some sort of patent.

ORLY!?

So let me get mind around this, California bans cellphones while behind the wheel but will possibly tie this to cellphones or even a confusing screen on your dashboard? When will the madness end?

The article you linked to is designed to shock you and sell papers/get click-throughs.

For one thing, there was a "grace period" before the law went into effect. It's just that the grace period ended on July 1st. Most of us in California have known about this law for at least 10 months -- if not longer.

You can still use your cell phone with your bluetooth headset (the device doesn't have to be bluetooth, it just needs to be handsfree). You can still dial your cell phone with voice recognition. And you can still dial a number manually, and/or not use a headset, if you pull over to the side of the road.

The handfree technology is pretty good these days and it's become mainstream. So it's not like this law is as inconvenient or as "mad" as you think it is.

Also, California has much better government data-disclosure (due to some recent court decisions) than many other States, so you can be sure that this parking meter data will be published, integrated, and rebroadcasted in real-time by many services like Tom Tom directly into people's GPS units.

There is an army of mappers available - namely the device users. Given that all the devices that are deployed can be synced to the internet for POI/map adjustment and generally have megs of flash storage available, it wouldnt be too hard to store notes on routes experienced and deviations from the known map if the user agrees to it. Suddenly you have hundreds of thousands of mappers. TomTom have already started to do something along these lines with their MapShare technology but IMHO it's a bit of a rubbish implementation and completely misses the point... Still, it's a start.

Last year TomTom announced their HD Traffic system http://www.tomtom.com/news/category.php?ID=4&NID=389&Language=4 that is using GSM handset location information from Vodafone to determine traffic conditions on dutch highways. Every 3 minute TomTom gets raw, anonymous handset location data from Vodafone. This data is then processed to determine where on the high ways large concentrations of mobile phones are moving slow. This might mean that there is a traffic jam at that location.

Each TomTom with HD traffic will also be equiped with a GSM sim and this enhanced traffic information is send via GPRS to these devices.

Some people are questioning the validity of their claims that this give better traffic details that current methodes. What is a car has broken down? will it trigger a traffic jam notification? How about paralell roads that are jammed? Or taxi's waiting at the trainstation for a pick up?

OpenStreetMap can be loaded on the iPhone and here's the State of the Map Conference wrap up, the OpenStreetMap conference.

And collaborative mapping is big deal. Google recently launched Google Our Maps, which is basically Google My Maps but with collaboration capabilities.

From my previous comment: There's NAVTEQ's MapReporter tool to submit updates to NAVTEQ's data by the casual user, [and also] Tele Atlas' Map Insight and TomTom's MapShare.

Indeed.

My commute home takes me over a bridge which is 1.8 metres wide. Last night the traffic was queueing back half a mile from the bridge. I cycled past the queue to find a bunch of polis trying to deal with a truck and trailer that were too wide for the bridge and too big to turn in the road.

I thought as I watched them, 'ah, another victory for Tom Tom!'

I've been a Vodafone customer in the UK for eleven years now. I use a phone they didn't sell me, and have applications on it that I wrote as well as various others

Even on the phones Vodafone do sell you, features are not normally disabled; the last phone I got from them (Sony Ericsson P910i) has a ringtone downloaded direct to it from the net for free, and various applications I installed from places around the net. I don't think you could survive with a 'lock the users in' policy in Europe - there's too much competition.

NAVTEQ's MapReporter tool to submit updates to NAVTEQ's data by the casual user, Tele Atlas' Map Insight and TomTom's MapShare. But I won't lie, the best map crowdsourcing project is doubtlessly OpenStreetMap.org