MS Clearflow To Help Drivers Avoid Traffic Jams

Pioneer Woman writes "Microsoft announced plans to introduce a Web-based service for driving directions that incorporates complex software models to help users avoid traffic jams. The system is intended to reflect the complex traffic interactions that occur as traffic backs up on freeways and spills over onto city streets and will be freely available as part of the company's Live.com site for 72 cities in the US. Microsoft researchers designed algorithms that modeled traffic behavior by collecting trip data from Microsoft employees who volunteered to carry GPS units in their cars. In the end they were able to build a model for predicting traffic based on four years of data, effectively creating individual 'personalities' for over 800,000 road segments in the Seattle region. In all the system tracks about 60 million road segments in the US."

Comments

What next? Air traffic control?

[toby]

Honestly, who could trust Microsoft to blow their own noses. Get real.

No thanks

[sm62704]

I use Microsoft software every day. I wish I didn't have to. When some other company makes something similar I'll look into it, but I have yet to see anything from Microsoft that isn't unreasonable and illogical, with all thought to look and none to functionality.

Knowing Microsoft the thing will probably break if you brake. It won't follow any standards (WE are Microsoft. We ARE the standard!), it will be unreasonably expensive, it will ask me where I want to go today and then take me somewhere else.

I'd rather have a retarded woman back-seat driving. She'd probably be more accurate and functional, too.

-mcgrew

(Yes, I'm still in a bad mood)