INRIX has announced the latest release of its Nationwide Average Speeds data. Most GPS receivers calculate travel time on the basis of the posted speed limit. This sort of historical speed data can discern patterns associated with time of day, day of the week, holidays, etc.
The new data set will be available next month. So if you have a TMC traffic receiver, you could benefit from this very soon. Without live traffic reports, you’ll likely have to wait for the next map update. According to GPS Lodge, INRIX is bundling data with TeleAtlas, and NAVTEQ is also acquiring historical average speed data.
Live traffic services aren’t all that great yet. Utilizing historic speed data is certainly a step in the right direction though.
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To use this Nationwide Average Speeds data you don’t need a TMC traffic receiver — it can come embedded into the device itself. In fact, one of the key values of this product is that it doesn’t require any connectivity or subscription. The data is not as current or real-time as if traffic is communicated live to the device, but for routing that needs to be traffic-influenced, Nationwide Average Speeds is perfect to enable the GPS devices to take into account “typical” traffic.
Right you are Ken. We should see this sort of data integrated into the maps in PNDs before too long.