Be the traffic

I was chatting with someone late last year about my vision for Web-connected in-car GPS devices. I figured that if all these devices used the Web to report location back to a central server, then given you ARE the traffic, all that data from all those devices would constitute a real-time picture of the traffic situation along our busy roads.

Today we use these GPS devices in a one-way fashion; to receive signals from satellites deployed for the purposes of Global Positioning, geo-coded to represent your current location and then overlayed on mapping data held in the device. You use it to get from A to B, with the odd detour via unexpected river C.

I can see a day when those devices become far more important in the data they send rather than what they receive. These devices are starting to become Internet connected, so today you can download traffic data and services (such a fuel, food, etc) available nearby. However I think there's more value to these devices when they start to report your location and the location of other devices nearby. Using that data means it's possible to build up a profile of traffic in the area on a real-time basis. Oh the value of the "swarm".

Then today I read this: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/16/tomtom-puts-its-hd-traffic-service-data-in-a-browser-lets-every/

Looks like we're close to a better connected world in the car. However, I'd like to see this sort of interface being richer, more dynamic and more interactive. If we can get the device in your car, and the car next to yours reporting location and telemetry in real-time, then using the same technology, there's no reason why we can't also view it in real-time in the browser. How? Well, using WebSockets and the Web as the communication mechanism between you, the server and every other GPS device user on the road, we have an efficient communication mesh that is up to the task, with no barriers to use. Bring it on!