Smarter driving - from IBM and TrafficMaster

By: Drivers.com staff

Date: Wednesday, 15. August 2012

In the UK, TrafficMaster is in the business of "intelligent driving services." That means fleet tracking, traffic information, route planning, and a bunch of other services that spin off from all the information they gather. Its new technology alliance with IBM means that "On-Demand Business Mileage Reporting" will be one of those extra services.

Trafficmaster gathers massive amounts of information about traffic speeds, road congestions, conditions, travel times by tracking movements of phones and navigation systems and pulling information in from road sensors and other sources. Its IBM alliance means that IBM's hardware, storage and software resources, combined with IBM's Informix data base technology, will be used to analyse and massage all that data into upgraded traffic information and routing guidance in the UK.

IBM's system will log real road speeds and offer users more accurate Estimated Time of Arrival information.

TrafficMaster is using IBM's computing power to create the On-Demand Business Mileage Reporting system. This will provide drivers with accurate recording of their mileage and trips which they can instantly access to separate business and personal driving. Drivers will always know where their vehicle was at any given time and be able to tag a trip, or part of a trip, as either business or private related.

This feature is being combined with a stolen vehicle security package on some vehicles. It comes as an option on BMW and Mini models. TrafficMaster's SmartNav service, which includes all these features, now comes as standard equipment in Citroen light commercial vehicles.

And the future ?

Stuart Berman, executive director of Trafficmaster, sees a host of valuable products to be generated from the massive amounts of data it will accumulate and which can now be processed using IBM technology.

"Now that we have the 'engine' to process our valuable data, there is more potential for innovative offerings, particularly in areas such as pay-as-you-drive insurance and road pricing," Berman says. "We are experts in vehicle data collection, and IBM has skills in bringing that data into a structured format, analyzing it and delivering it - and the systems integration expertise to build applications for our clients. Together we are able to provide a very powerful offering."

Related Links: