INRIX®, a leading provider of traffic information and navigation services, is announcing ground-breaking new technology that significantly improves the accuracy of real-time traffic information as the company introduces coverage for arterials, city streets and secondary roads nationwide.
Expanding its highly accurate real-time traffic by over 100,000 miles of arterials, city streets and secondary roads, INRIX customers and partners can now leverage a total of over 260,000 miles of real-time speeds to route drivers around traffic congestion. In early ground truth testing, INRIX’s new patent-pending SpeedWaves™ technology increases the accuracy of real-time traffic travel time information on these roads by more than 70 percent compared to current approaches.
“We’ve all experienced the dilemma of being stuck in traffic on a major roadway wondering if we would get there any faster by exiting and taking side streets or other local roads. And we’ve all gambled in these instances with equal degrees of success and failure,” said Bryan Mistele, president and CEO, INRIX. “Now, INRIX eliminates the guesswork with the definitive answer to this age old question that will help millions of drivers know with greater certainty the best route to their destination.”
Until now, real-time traffic information on arterials has been either unavailable or considered highly unreliable and inaccurate because it has been based on speed measurements of vehicles that continually start and stop at traffic lights and stop signs. INRIX’s new SpeedWaves™ technology calculates profiles of speed distributions per road segment that factor in the impact stop signs and other traffic control devices have on the billions of data points INRIX receives from more than 1.5 million GPS-enabled vehicles and devices in its Smart Driver Network. This enables INRIX to use specific, real-time information from these vehicles to accurately report traffic information throughout the road network, resulting in a true picture of actual traffic conditions on secondary roadways. The result is not merely an average of information from separate vehicles traveling on the same roadway, but an analysis of data from individual vehicle reports that accurately determines real-time congestion across the road segment.
“While other companies treat arterials and city streets just like stretches of uninterrupted highway, we factor in the impact traffic lights, stop signs, curb cuts and other traffic control tools have on traffic speeds to provide a significantly more accurate snapshot of real-time traffic conditions and congestion on these roads,” said Senior Director of Product Management Ken Kranseler.
With today’s announcement, INRIX is significantly expanding its real-time traffic flow coverage of roads in North America by 60% to more than 260,000+ miles enabling customers to better route drivers around traffic and speed them to their destination.
Ford Motor Company and MapQuest Among First to Leverage New Breakthrough
In a keynote presentation this morning to attendees at the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Ford Motor Company CEO Alan Mulally and Connected Service Solutions Director Doug VanDagens announced that starting later this quarter the company will become the first automaker to utilize INRIX’s real-time traffic information for 100,000 additional miles of arterials, city streets and secondary roads to route drivers around traffic congestion and speed them to their destination. As Ford introduces MyFord Touch and extends availability of SYNC with Traffic, Directions and Information to every make and model, they will use INRIX’s real-time traffic information for arterials to offer vehicle owners new time-saving options for getting to their desired destination.
Additionally, MapQuest will use traffic data from INRIX to provide users of its popular mapping and directions website with the ability to see real-time traffic information for more city streets and arterials across the U.S. With this additional coverage, MapQuest users will be able to plan trips and see the traffic impact on secondary as well as primary roadways. MapQuest, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL Inc.
About INRIX
INRIX® is a leading provider of highly accurate traffic services, with more than 90 customers and industry partners including the Ford Motor Company, TomTom, MapQuest, Microsoft, NAVIGON AG, TeleNav, I-95 Corridor Coalition, Tele Atlas, deCarta, ITIS Holdings, TCS, Telmap, ANWB and ADAC. INRIX’s strategic partnership with Clear Channel Radio and Total Traffic Network extends the delivery of the highest quality data and broadest coverage available for personal navigation, mapping, telematics and other location-based service applications in the car, online and on mobile devices.
INRIX Traffic Services leverage sophisticated statistical analysis techniques, originally developed by Microsoft Research, to aggregate and enhance traffic-related information from hundreds of public and private sources, including traditional road sensors and the company’s unique network of over 1.5 million GPS-enabled vehicles and mobile devices including 8 of the top 10 iPhone navigation apps. INRIX delivers real-time and historical traffic information today for 16 countries across North America and Europe. To experience the traffic technology revolution behind the next generation of navigation and location-based service applications, visit www.INRIX.com or follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/INRIX.
Ford and MIT Team Up To Improve Safety by Reducing Driver Stress
