TomTom’s HD Traffic—which improves real time traffic—was available on a single model, but now it will expand to all LIVE portable navigation devices. And TomTom cut the price of the traffic service in half to $59.95 a year.
HD Traffic tracks hundreds of thousands of drivers on the road to give you more accurate traffic reports. It covers 12 times the number of roadways as most services and the traffic feed is updated every 2 minutes instead of the usual 15 minutes, said TomTom.
TomTom’s CEO Harold Goddijn said if only 10 percent of drivers in the U.S. had a TomTom PND with HD Traffic, it would reduce traffic in the U.S.
HD Traffic data is collected anonymously from drivers with TomTom devices (their road speed can be measured). TomTom adds that to data it collects from fleet drivers, and combines it with past road speed data (also known as IQ Routes). Then it adds traffic accident report data and mixes all that up to make predictions on traffic.
HD Traffic improves rerouting because it is less likely to steer you from a jam on the highway into a jam on the back road, said TomTom.
PND models with HD Traffic include the recently released GO 2535 M LIVE ($349.95), the GO 740 LIVE and XL 340 LIVE (starts at $159.95).
Source: TomTom
