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17th November 2011
Page 37
Page 37, 17th November 2011 — INRIX
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Global traffic information Seattle-based INRIX, founded in 2005, recently bought UK traffic information firm ITIS, and claims ‘the largest traffic network in the world’. Its live traffic data is used by broadcasters, road operators, satellite navigation providers (vehicle makers such as Ford, BMW and Audi, as well as third-party brands such as Google and Co-Pilot) and specialist routeing and scheduling packages such as PC Miler.

Jim Bak, senior PR and marketing manager, says: “When we started it was with the idea of crowdsourcing traffic data.” The challenge, he says, was to see if there was a better way to get live traffic data than existing roadside sensors and reporting methods. The firm built partnerships with commercial fleets and cab operators, and used GPS devices mounted in the vehicles to send regular updates on position and speed.

Meanwhile, ITIS in the UK had been using mobile phone technology to achieve similar goals, using data from fleets such as Eddie Stobart and National Express.

“We were kind of doing the same thing but on slightly different paths,” says Bak. ITIS itself had also acquired Trafficlink, the service which provides broadcast local traffic and travel reports to most of the UK’s commercial radio stations.

The position data from cellular phones (found by triangulating between cell towers) is intrinsically less precise than that from GPS devices, but ITIS had developed ingenious methods to improve its accuracy, and the simpler hardware requirements meant it had many more sources of data. “Part of what makes a good crowdsourced service is lots of data,” says Bak, “as well as good analytics such as outlier detection.” One advantage, he adds, is that “you can get data from anywhere people travel,” and not just the major roads served by traffic sensors. “There are opportunities to use the road network more optimally.

“Fleets are interested in using our information for congestion pricing,” says Bak. “If customers want a pickup during peak hours they might price that job differently.” ITIS already uses data from 20 million vehicles and devices worldwide, and Bak says that its methods will be important for manufacturers trying to get into the growing Indian and Chinese markets, where there is relatively low GPS usage.

But as your mobile devices transmit this position data to thirdparty firms, is Big Brother watching you? No, says Bak; he assures us that the device ID is stripped when it gets the position data, so no personally identifiable information is transmitted.

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