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Using Cellular Traffic to Monitor Traffic Jams
An Anonymous Coward writes "The BBC has this story about Scots company Applied Generics and their plan to use cellphone location data to determine where there are traffic jams and (presumably) generate (and sell?) evasive routing tactics for drivers. They are using both passive cellular traffic (what you get when the phone is switched on) and active (drivers phoning up to say they'll be late - in standing traffic, I hope) to look for clusters of immobile cellphones along major routes. The whole idea has a sort of "why didn't I think of that?" neatness. Personally I wouldn't mind my own traffic being used wholesale (aggregated with thousands of other users), but how do other /.ers feel about a company profiting from data emitted by the cellphone that they paid for?"
Next in the same series: using cell locations to guide missiles to achieve more casualties. The high-tech way of saying "shut-up!".
Just think of how many fines you'd get if you frequently used the train.
Well, provided it's not a British Rail train, that it is...
Yes! Now when someone honks at me for driving recklessly and paying attention to the phone instead of the road, I can flip them off, and self-rightously think, "I'm helping the situation."
look for places to live in the inner cities.... all these will add to one's quality of life
Wow! What a clinker! I guess I'll go walk out in the trees near the field behind my 100 year old farm house, listen to the birds singing, and ponder on your pithy statement.
when some one invents and mass produces transporters, it won't matter :). Bad star trek joke.
is to cut my commute in half by buying loads of second-hand cell phones and packing them into a fleet of station wagons strategically driven by hired teenagers.
...at least until somebody develops some sort of auto-gyro apparatus that is able to hover relatively short distance above the ground. That is the technology I am waiting for. Just think of the possibilities available with that technology! News stations could theoretically use this amazing technology to fly employees above city streets to report on traffic buildup as it happens! This Cell information using company better hope these vehicles remain science fiction for a long time to come, otherwise it could seriously cut into their bottom line.
The best use of this service is when they warn about 'ghost drivers', meaning idiots who are driving down the highway on the wrong side of the road. I wonder if a cellphone-based system could detect this as well?
I doubt the signal strength from one side of the road is significantly stronger or weaker than on the other. Direction could be determined easily enough, but you wouldn't be able to tell if one of the vehicles was on the other side of the road.
Here in Arizona we get lots of snow-birds (retirees - many whose only discretion is their discretionary income) each winter who shouldn't be allowed to drive. One snow-bird called her husband to warn him of a news report of someone driving on the wrong side of the freeway. His response? "I know, but it's not just one car, it's hundreds!!"
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As a matter of fact, I am a lawyer. But I play an actor on TV.