Former Microsoft spin-off Inrix on Tuesday will launch a new, nationwide traffic-prediction platform.
A new routing service combined with traffic data available for more than 800,000 miles of U.S. roads and location-based information is all part of the Connected Services platform Inrix hopes Web and mobile application developers, gadget makers, and car companies will be driven to adopt.
Inrix CEO Bryan Mistele says he thinks the new platform will lower the barrier to entry for developers and device makers.
"By wrapping it all together, this can do for telematics and navigation what YouTube did for video," he said in an interview.
One of the keys to the accuracy of the service is the predictive ability. Inrix uses historical traffic data, real-time road conditions--gathered from more than 750,000 devices used in cabs, commercial vehicles, and some GPS-enabled consumer cell phones--as well as local information like weather, school schedules, concerts, and sporting events--essentially anything that will cause delays. (Interestingly, Mistele says school schedules are one of the biggest variables of traffic in most major markets.)
Example of Inrix's 3rd Generation Routing Service.
(Credit: Inrix)The routing service also gets a bit fancier by using more than just posted speed limits, which as Mistele points out, not many adhere to, either by choice (speeding) or not (traffic). Inrix's Third Generation Routing Service provides traffic and info on best route and how long it will take you to get there.
None of this is available directly to consumers, but it should make it a lot easier to get more inexpensive and full-featured personal navigation and GPS devices.
Garmin has a really small idea for making smart phones a whole lot smarter.
The GPS device maker announced Wednesday GPS software called Garmin Mobile XT. Embedded on a microSD card, the software gives the handset access to a slew of location-based services, such as maps, driving directions, real-time traffic and weather information, local gas prices and friend-finding tools.
The card is $99, a steal compared with the average Garmin device, which will run you anywhere from $200 to $1,000. And, of course, you don't need to ferry around a separate navigation device.
Mobile XT comes loaded with maps of the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico or Europe. It takes advantage of phones connected to the Web by routing to the location of a contact in the phone's address book or to a calendar appointment and can broadcast your location to any other phone or pinpoint the whereabouts of other Garmin Mobile XT users.
All of this map data is provided by Navteq, which was enticed into joining Nokia's ranks Monday in exchange for $8.1 billion. The acquisition by Nokia demonstrates the appeal and strategic importance of offering location-based services. What Garmin is trying to do by offering the Mobile XT hardware/software combination is along the lines of what Nokia is aspiring to do--namely, incorporate the convenience of navigation services into a single device that most everyone carries.
Though both are hardware makers that depend on software to make this happen, they are coming from opposite sides: Nokia is the world's No. 1 producer of cell phones, and Garmin is a stalwart of the personal-navigation industry. Though GPS devices won't fade away completely, Nokia's position in the handset business and control of Navteq give it an obvious advantage in this competition for consumers.
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