ABI Research has reported that 83 million paid or registered users worldwide will utilize traffic navigation technology by 2012. This prediction comes upon the explosive popularity of GPS in both the consumer and industrial sectors. There are some challenges at the moment, however, in providing useful real-time data.
First off, measurement systems such as road sensors and cameras are expensive and at times hard to install. Alternatives are being looked at by data collectors and methods such as floating-car and cellular movement data are less complex and don’t require expensive roadside installation. These may prove to be the measurement systems of choice.
Secondly, traffic data aggregation will become more predictive in producing real-time data. The predictive nature is harder to integrate into navigational routing.
Finally, the market landscape is cluttered at the moment, but ABI Research figures that in the next few years INRIX and NAVTEQ/Traffic.com will become the two major data aggregators and all other companies will be pushed out of the market or be forced to supply data to the two major companies.
As all the complexities are ironed out, look for real-time traffic navigation systems to move their way into the consumer GPS market, making your drive home from work hopefully a lot less stressful!
