Beating Traffic By Joining the Network
25 Mar 2008
SUNNYVALE, California - New System Takes and Shares Data From Cars.
For a solitary driver, the ebb and flow of traffic can be maddeningly unpredictable. So some tech entrepreneurs wondered what would happen if all of those isolated drivers could be connected and warn one another what lies ahead.
The idea will get a closely watched tryout this week, when Dash Navigation begins selling two-way GPS devices for cars, creating, in essence, a network of drivers. A central computer will collect speed and location information from each car, then create and transmit back what the start-up company hopes will be the most complete and up-to-the-minute picture of traffic ever created. Based on the once-futuristic notion of the "hive mind" - essentially, the aggregation of what everyone in a group senses individually - the effort reflects what many consider one of the most fertile areas for innovation: collecting and analyzing data from disparate but newly linked sources.
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