Partner News: TomTom

Date: 07 October 2009

TomTom has collected 800 billion speed measurements on the worldwide road network. Every day, this number increases by over 1 billion. These speed measurements are provided anonymously by TomTom customers and have been collected for the last three years. This information can be used by decision-makers to measure and determine:

• Where road network bottlenecks are located 
• On what days and at what times of day are travel speeds reduced due to congestion
• Whether travel times are shortening or lengthening over time
• Whether the accessibility of a region is changing over time
• Whether changes/improvements made to the road network have actually improved travel times and bottlenecks

TomTom has used this same database to create IQ Routes technology. This technology improves TomTom navigation by calculating the best routes based on actual speed data driven on roads, not just maximum speed limits, taking into account any hold-ups that might cause delays (busy junctions, zebra crossings and even shopping crowds). This data enhances the quality of TomTom navigation across the board, but is particularly helpful in improving the quality of detailed routing for the specific time of day and day of the week of a trip.

TomTom provides our IQ Routes technology to the business-to-business market through its Tele Atlas business unit in a product called Speed Profiles. Speed Profiles are available for 26 countries, covering 35 million kilometres. Tele Atlas can now offer the historical speed data on routes embedded in the maps it sells to customers - from internet services to mobile phone operators.

Now TomTom is also providing more travel time and speed information to businesses and governments for a wide variety of applications. This can provide significant time and cost savings when compared to traditional survey and roadside measurement techniques, as well as providing a much larger sample size and therefore more reliable information.

IQRoutes tm  and Speed Profiles tm are trademarks of TomTom International BV.

For more information, please contact Nick Cohn