U.K. based navigation company TomTom announced yesterday that they will now be including weather conditions when calculating routes for driving, enabling drivers faster routes, safer travels and the ability to arrive prepared for all weather. The weather alerts will tie in with the traffic jam information that TomTom already connects, informing drivers about upcoming slow areas due to heavy rain, snow, or washed out areas.
“By knowing the exact traffic situation across the entire road network we can calculate the quickest route to help people get to their destination faster,” Ralf-Peter Schäfer, head of TomTom Traffic said in a press release. “We know that bad weather is often unpredictable and can cause significant travel delays. Now, by factoring in the weather, we give drivers more advanced knowledge about the road ahead to make journeys faster and more predictable.”
TomTom will be the first navigational company to include weather information when calculating routes for drivers and figuring estimated arrival times. The press release didn’t say which units will use this new formula for calculating routes, unfortunately, but I expect it will be available in the next units released and perhaps even with updates to the more recent releases.
I wonder if Garmin will add that feature, too.