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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.'"
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this would be really handy technology....
if it would update live.
(calgary example: "x929 reports a crash in the left hand lane on deerfoot and 64th, stay in the right hand lane, or take a detour from $x to $y")
if it had that... I just _might_ buy one of these for my car... I typically know where I'm going on any given day, but if the road changes, I'd like to know that before getting stuck in a jam.
~/.sig: No such file or directory
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
My 2007 BMW 3series with iDrive navigation package does exactly that.
The navigation system receives real-time traffic info, and will actively alert me if my planned route has traffic and (depending on whether I have it set for a dynamic route) either automagically alter the route around the jam, or offer me the option of doing so.
If I'm not following a planned route, it will still place traffic alerts on the map to indicate accidents, congestion, severity of congestion, lane closures, etc... and it also offers detailed information about these advisories (where, when, etc).
It's come in extremely handy on many occasions, seeing as I live in Southern California.
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
Yes, but will it tell you about Bullfights?
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.
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.
Or without the TMC antenna, and using an internet connected over bluetooth (eg GPRS, GSM dialup, etc). In the UK, the TMC antenna is a non-functioning piece of junk (the antenna is the wrong length for the frequency range it tries to pick up, and the channel transmitting the required RDS information, Classic FM, often isn't on powerful enough transmitters for it to work properly). On a typical 4 hour motorway run from Cheltenham to Newcastle, I got about 40 minutes of TMC coverage.
The maps have also had some form of speed information in them for ages (eg on a 70mph motorway it will assume 60mph etc, on some it knows there are usually "temporary" 50mph limits in force and warns you), and you can plan a route based on whether it is shortest, fastest etc. It will also calculate estimated time of arrival based on this.
Now, if you could set it up so the 'peers' communicated with aggregated flow information, then that would really be a -very- useful trick. 'cars slowing in 2 miles, average velocity 10mph'. 'numerous vehicles stationary between J5 and J6 on road XYZ, congestion or accident or something'.
Or even just as simple as 'road's getting busy, and slowing down, might want to go a different way today'.