Corinne Vigreux, TomTom’s CEO, has given us an insight into TomTom’s incredible foresight when it comes to their new features. Speaking during demonstrations of the latest ‘LIVE’ series Sat Navs, Ms Vigreux responded to fears that the new system would actually cause more traffic congestion. She announced that rather than directing everyone who owns one of the systems on the same route, Vigreux said high levels of TomTom LIVE ownership could actually makes congestion a thing of the past, since traffic can be “managed”, rather than simply directed.
“Over 50% saturation you begin distributing traffic. It actually works better that way” she said, explaining that, if TomTom knows where your car will be going, it can re-route other drivers so they don’t get in your way, and vice versa.
“As you get more people using satnav you get better at distributing traffic, so not all users follow the same route” she said.
The theory is your TomTom won’t just calculate the fastest route using average road speeds, traffic congestion or even weather conditions – it’ll actually take into account other people’s journeys along the same stretch of road. This state of affairs just came one step closer as TomTom just signed a deal with Renault to install its GPS systems inside their new cars.
Fri, Oct 31, 2008
TomTom Traffic