Intelligent GPS devices tap away traffic

By Reed Stevenson

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Next time you're stuck in traffic on the way to an unfamiliar destination, 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, promising smarter, more reliable traffic information to help them 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 analyzes 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.