Next time you're stuck in traffic on the way to an unfamiliar destination, with a navigation device pointing the way, look around.
Chances are there are other drivers just like you, staring back and forth between the tail lights ahead and the little screen with a digital map instructing you to stay on the road - a road often clogged with bumper-to-bumper traffic.
A new wave of personal navigation devices, led by TomTom of the Netherlands, promises smarter, more reliable traffic information to help drivers avoid road congestion and find alternate routes to their destinations.
Traffic information on navigation devices has long been available over radio frequencies and more recently, over mobile data connections, by using information from traffic cameras and sensors on the road.
Garmin, TomTom's main rival, has a deal with Sirius XM Radio's XM Satellite Radio to offer traffic information across North America.
Taking a further step, TomTom's HD Traffic series uses a nifty source of congestion data: the mobile phones of drivers inching through traffic jams.
Mobile radio towers anonymously track the progression of mobile signals on roadways, and TomTom analyses that information for users of its HD Traffic-enabled devices.
The updates arrive every three minutes, Amsterdam-based TomTom says, five times more often than any other service. "Almost every car I see in a traffic jam has a TomTom," said John Meijer, an accountant in Amsterdam.
Feature creep
With 16 million people packed into a country only slightly larger than the US state of Maryland, congestion in the Netherlands can be a real problem.
That's why TomTom is betting that drivers will be willing to pay as much as 500 euros ($750) for its top-of-the-line TomTom GO 930 HD Traffic device.
Although the new traffic service is available only in the Netherlands, and only in four major cities right now, TomTom continues to add features to its regularly updated models and make them more available on both sides of the Atlantic.
Garmin's top portable car navigation model, the nuvi 880, by comparison, costs $880, but more affordable models are priced closer to $500.
Both offer other features, such as multimedia features, speech and the ability to connect to a wireless Bluetooth device.
Such features might sound daunting, even for most technophiles, but navigation device-makers have made ease of use a top priority, an important consideration given the distractions for drivers who need to keep their eyes on the road.
TomTom's device displays traffic information on the main touch-sensitive screen, and with just three or four taps, reroutes drivers with new directions.
Its top models also aim to solve another problem potentially more annoying and dangerous than traffic jams: outdated maps. Users can tap through their devices to report missing roads, bad traffic signs and other errors.
That information is then shared and used as a guide to update digital maps, which can in turn be downloaded onto other navigation devices.
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