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Improving GPS Systems with Traffic Flow Data
An anonymous reader writes "According to a story in Technology Review, some GPS companies are factoring in traffic flow and time of day. From the article: 'Tele Atlas, a Boston-based company that provides digital maps and navigational content, has integrated new trafficking software into its map database so that drivers can find the most optimal route based on speed rather than distance — for any stretch of road at any hour of any day of the week.'"
I can't speak for pure gps devices, but google maps on my treo 750 factors in traffic for known areas. The only downside is that its for major metropolitan areas. (i.e. not where i live or work)
If i got a gps antenna, i could have a gps "device" that factors in traffic. It'll be worth it once the traffic reports expand beyond a few key cities.
Is it sad that I am more likely to recognize you and your posts by your sig than your name or UID?
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Well, then that's pretty easy to code:
if (1) alert("You can't get there from here!");
So, are they going to guess when accidents occur based on historical data? I know they use some real time info, but where I live, accidents are what fuck up commutes.
Then everyone is going to be on the fastest route. Those old slow, traffic infested roads will be like ghost towns.
For those of you who want to check traffic before you leave, usually a state's highway patrol will list accidents and obstructions. I have this site bookmarked and check it before i drive anywhere long distance. http://www.fhp.state.fl.us/traffic/ Look for ones in your state.
Is it sad that I am more likely to recognize you and your posts by your sig than your name or UID?
Bah! This doesn't give you real time data. Only slightly better than present day GPS'.
You will never have experience until after you needed it.
This kind of information feedback loop when introduced on a large scale will provide interesting opportunities for behavioural study.
Do you follow the GPS advice like everyone else and get congested along the "best route?"
Or do you pick the busiest route knowing that everyone will avoid it?
I think the most effective general strategy is meant to be to alternate between obeying it and disobeying it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner's_dilemma
http://pcblues.com - Digits and Wood
And in Portland, OR, with our infamous Champagne Glass Highway System- you can pretty easily predict 1-3 rush hour accidents per week on Boone Bridge over the Willamette that will fuck up the commute for everybody.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
When did GPS become synonymous with automobile navigation systems?
That has to be way illegal.
sigalert.com has real-time (or slightly delayed) traffic info for much of Southern California. It gives you the overall speed of traffic at each exit of all the freeways.
This is a classic example of why empowering the masses isn't necessarily a good idea. Now my favorite commute is going to be jam packed with traffic. Thanks a lot.
668: Neighbour of the Beast
The GO910 isn't exactly a new model, yet it supports traffic rerouting. It's a subscription service, but it's there, it (apparently, I'm too cheap to try it) works, it's old hat.
Also, if you don't have a GPS nav in your car yet, get one. Srsly. <3.
What is needed is to turn the car navigator into small wireless device. Then traffic flow rates can be passed from car to car. Accidents can be reported in real time and traffic adjusted accordingly. - Q
Walk or bike for a change.
Where possible, of course.
grey wolf
LET FORTRAN DIE!
I telecommute you insensitive clod!
Any feedback system is prone to instability, depending on gain, feedback speed etc. This is a problem as old as automatic control systems.
A traffic advice/control system can use two simple mechanisms to prevent oscillation:
(1)Firstly, really fast feedback. If people get routing updates in seconds rather than tens of minutes, then they will tend to get good routing. Remember that only a limited number of people will be able to take an offramp etc and get rerouted within, say a minute. So long as the rate of rerouting is slower than the feedback, the system should not oscillate.
(2) Selective rerouting. The system can reroute portion of the traffic down alternate routes. It does not have to be all or nothing. Essentially this provides a way to set gain.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
you could probably drive very fast in a direction that wouldn't get you to where you are going quickly
No kidding. Let me now propose the theorem that there is some equilibrium at which the ratio of people with guidance and those without guidance such that overall traffic flow is maximized. Let me also propose that beyond that ratio, guidance further decreases overall traffic flow. Let me then propose that, beyond that ratio, the only way to improve traffic flow further is if every route is precomputed for every driver.
The proof is left as an exercise to the reader.
Here in Japan, my car's navigation system takes into account any congestion and would direct me to the "quickest" route rather than the shortest.
Being one of the poor souls who commute to and from Boston, I can say a GPS device that uses traffic speed estimates for best routes won't do much good. I know the city in and out, northbound, southbound, westbound, your only hope is to *1 from your cell phone to check current traffic your side of the commute. If it's jammed more than usual, either wait it out and look good at the office, or pretend your backroad shortcut saved you time (hint, it's always 6 of one, halfdozen of another)
I'd be happy if my TomTom would allow me a free update to makeup for the oneway roads it has tried to kill me on putting me in the reverse direction. The machines have intelligence, and a sense of humor....
No words of wisedom here.
This is where the value would seem to lie in the asymmetrical distribution of knowledge. Once everyone knows, you no longer have {that much of} an advantage.
Still, even no live GPSes would benefit greatly from some knowledge of traffic bottlenecks and times of the day. If you are going north west, and the most efficient route would have you go west then north was only true at 21:00, @ 18:00 the most efficient route would be north then west. It'd certainly be great to have some sort of smarts in the GPS unit.
(I am speaking as a Garmin 2610 owner).
ISO certified == THX certified
Does that mean there's a "least optimal" too? How about "very optimal", or even "optimally optimal"?
Parity: What to do when the weekend comes.
Give me integrated live traffic updates or don't bother, no two Mondays are alike.
Me lost me cookie at the disco.
Well, ultimately, I recon it'd work best with a "learning" algorithm. Let's assume that when the time comes that everyone still drives personal vehicles (or is driven in personal vehicles) and has such GPS technology... after a few re-routes the software can begin to guage how much traffic the alternate routes can handle, and it only re-directs a portion of the traffic such that all available routes run around the same threshold of congestion.
Wait, I didn't just say that....
I just forgot, I have an appointment at the patent office, back later!
Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. - Dr. Seuss
Which one do you have? Cos I have a top of the line HD based Strada that's just over a year old and that sure as hell doesn't. The damned thing keeps trying to send me down 246 which at some times seems to be the *only* crowded road in Tokyo, or to Chiba by highway via Ichikawa when the Wangan is only slighly longer but much much faster.
j'ai découvert une démonstration vraiment admirable (de ce théorème général) que cette si
I kinda wonder how much research was done on the article if they can't get even the simple stuff right. What's next, "Microsoft, a Silicon Valley company, is launching its new operating system..."
GPS is not the same as (in-car) navigation. "GPS" is purely a positioning system. You can use it to figure out where you are. A navigation system (like TomTom) uses the GPS position along with a digital map to determine where you are and calculate the quickest/shortest route to a given destination.
Why don't they make it provide the safest route, by aggregating and using all the traffic accident data for which statistics are already kept. Avoid the high-risk intersections.
Ian W.
They're trying to improve global positioning with traffic data? In the most optimal way?
Bah. This is exactly what I was trying to do. Lots of road users, all updating a central server with road speeds, and the ability to smartly reroute people based on knowledge of delays, etc.
I shouldn't think it'll be long, now that people have phones (IP connection) with GPS built-in. It's not much further until end users are offered a cut in the monthly costs in exchange for providing data of their movements.
Of course, the security/privacy implications are something that need to be carefully worked out - TLS protected location updates, and no identifiable information would be a good starting point.
Get your own free personal location tracker
as somebody mentioned below, there's a system in the UK called traffic master, that monitors traffic speeds on major roads. Initially you had to have a separate device that just told you about upcoming traffic (I think triggered by beacons over roads, rather than GPS).
For the last couple of years most high-end TomTom products have offered a service that integrates TrafficMaster into their software. I use a Tytn PocketPC connected to a Bluetooth GPS unit to plan my route. Every x minutes the phone connects via GPRS/3G to a TomTom server to download the latest traffic information, it overlays any delays onto my route and as I approach congestion it determines if there's an alternative, longer, route that will get me past the delay faster than sitting through it. If there is, then it automatically replots my route for me.
System works pretty well, the only problem being where there is no traffic master information available - i.e. it sees a big motorway blockage, but doesn't know what the traffic is like on the secondary road. Secondary road would be faster if it's clear, but if the motorway's blocked, it's probably not going to be.
GPS 5000 has detected a less traffic area. Chance of survival... 38%.
There is an initiative to do just this currently. The Vehicle Infrastructure Initiative (VII for the TLA types) proposes to use short distance wireless communications to have "cars talk to infrastructure, infrastructure talk to cars, and cars talk to cars."
Michigan Department of Transportation, auto producers, and suppliers are already testing some of the technology in the Detroit area. VII was also the focus of the ITS Michigan annual conference:
http://www.itsmichigan.org/ (check out the ftp site for presentations).
The Cadillac CTS, STS and Acura RL already do better than this. They download current traffic data via your XMRadio satellite connection and the NAV system in the car can use that data to route you around heavily congested areas.
http://www.CelloFourteGroupie.net
Don't most of you bay area (bleeks) have web browsers on your phones? Just go to http://www.ktvu.com/baytrafficmap/index.html
The main issue around incar navigation systems is that GPS was design for battlefield (open terrain) and not for guiding cars down the freeway. When used in cities GPS has problems due to multiple signal paths which cause errors in location calculation additionally to get a good locational fix any GPS ground device needs to see 3-4 satellites which is difficult due to high rise buildings. All in all GPS is only accurate to about 200-300 meters in a city, which makes navigation very difficult