Predictive traffic data will bring value to the nav market

25 Nov 2008

ABI Research stated, that poor quality and unreliability of traffic solutions doesn't exactly motivate customers to pay recurring fees.

Answering the decreasing disposition of dissatisfied customers to pay recurring fees, Garmin copied earlier moves by Navigon and introduced lifetime traffic subscriptions in the US.

According to ABI's director Dominique Bonte, predictive traffic makes time-dependent routing possible and provides customers with more trustworthy information, allowing them to prepare their trips more efficiently on Internet mapping sites and to calculate a more accurate ETA.

Several traffic information providers, like UK-based Journey Dynamics, INRIX and TrafficCast are preparing this new stage in traffic data provisioning.

While predictive traffic information does not require connected hardware because compact datasets and modelling software will be available for embedded navigation solutions, connectivity allows the use of more powerful off-board modelling and access to real-time inputs.