The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

Driver-updated satnavs to beat traffic jams

Pile-up on the M25, says TK08 PGZ

Cloud storage: Lower cost and increase uptime

The next time you’re stuck in traffic with no idea what the hold-up is, a driver way out in-front could be the one to let you know. That’s if a driver-fed satnav information service makes it out of the starting grid.

The Congestion Avoidance Dynamic Routing Engine (Cadre) will allow drivers to upload traffic information in real time, allowing other motorists to avoid the road-block.

For example, you could be driving down the A401 and suddenly hit a tail-back. You could enter this information into your satnav to inform other drivers of the delay. You'd also being able to re-plot your own route based on information provided by other drivers.

The driver-fed data should make for a more accurate representation of real-time conditions on the roads. It’ll also allow mapping systems to develop an overall pattern of which roads are usually clogged with traffic at which times.

Cadre is being developed by a government-funded research team led by Portsmouth University and TRL (Transport Research Lab), the former government road-research operation.

Patrick Beullens, from Portsmouth University's maths department, said that the system could tell you when the best time to leave home is and help make journeys as short as possible by minimising delays.

Cadre has already been tested on 2100 journeys around Hampshire's roads, including the M27, M3, A3 and the M25. It’s thought the system could be available within 18 months.

Customer Success Testimonial: Recovery is Everything

Latest Comments
Anonymous Coward

already done but better

um tomtom can already do this. But its automatic instead using the Mobile Network as source of if your in a queue or not.

Seems bit of a waste of grant to me ...

http://www.tomtom.com/news/category.php?ID=4&NID=374&Lid=1

0
0

Timeliness

Might work for current issues, if it can be done in a more timely manner than the local radio traffic updates which always seem to be way behind. I remember one recent trip, where they were warning of a big accident, road partially blocked, emergency vehicles in attendance etc, over the course of a couple of hours. We went through the alleged location twice during the period they were reporting updates, and didn't see a thing. Either huge information delays rendering the service useless, or some canny motorist realised that if he rang in with a phony report, it would significantly lighten the traffic on the road and help him get to his destination quicker...

0
0

More from The Register

New material enables 1,000-meter super-skyscrapers
Before you read on, see if you can guess how the new stuff will be used
Boffins build headless robo-kitties
Soft kitty, warm kitty, cuddly little ball of wire kitty
 breaking news
Latest NASA ASTRONAUT class is HALF FEMALE
Newbie 'nauts include lady Marine fighter pilot, male doctor
 breaking news
You've seen the Large Hadron Collider. Now comes the HUGE Hadron Collider
International Linear Collider ready to rock and roll
Boffins find evidence Atlantic Ocean has started closing
'Embryonic subduction zone' that flattened Lisbon headed for Blighty
Google launches broadband balloons, radio astronomy frets
A careless Loon could blind the square kilometre array
Hubble spies unlikely planet being born in hostile neighborhood
Hoovering a cloud of sand 7.5 billion miles from a tiny star
 breaking news
Jaguar to open new car-making factory in Blighty (virtually)
Britain still makes stuff, it's just not real any more...
 breaking news
Spin doctors brazenly fiddle with tiny bits in front of the neighbours
Quantum computer address bus just nanometres wide
 breaking news
China's second woman 'naut blasts off for coupling in HEAVEN
Wang and pals test the cosmic waters for Chinese space station