If you haven’t heard of TomTom’s HD Traffic, you’ll probably slap your head at the end of this post and think, “Brilliant! It’s so obvious”. If you have heard of it, it’s launching in Germany later this year.
For those of you not in the know, TomTom andVodafone paired up in the Netherlands to create the world’s most advanced traffic information system. They did this by combining their tried and true methods of traffic monitoring (like what the SUNA traffic channel does in Melbourne at the moment) with information gathered from people’s mobile phones. Things like how fast they’re travelling and what direction they’re heading are collected from Vodafone’s mobile towers. The result is an extremely comprehensive look at the state of traffic – practically everyone has a mobile phone these days, and they almost always take it with them in their car.
The move into Germany is a big one – TomTom’s products are already regarded as market leading, and providing a superior service as well will help them grow even faster. As you would expect, there’s no word on an Australian release for the service, but we’ll keep our fingers and toes crossed as we go to sleep tonight that maybe, someday, we’ll get it down under.