How real time is traffic information in GPS devices?

March 15, 2009 by admin · 1 Comment
Filed under: Other - Electronics 
gps
Dilbert asked:


I came across this store that states near real time http://astore.amazon.com/traffic-enabled-gps-devices-20 and was curious to find out.

Tags: , ,

Comments

One Response to “How real time is traffic information in GPS devices?”
  1. 2cent says:
    March 15, 2009 at 2:29 pm

    What they are refering to is TMC (Traffic message channel). Well, they claim it is real time but it actually is delayed traffic report. TMC is offered by ClearChannel which owns half of broadcasting frequency. First current traffic condition is analyzed from various source. Upon confirmation, data is sent to traffic management center where data is sent to various radio station and TV station. At same time it is sent to TMC center. Finally, from here, traffic message is transmitted at TMC frequency. Now you have traffic data that is probably 10~20 mins behind current traffic status. This probably goes for all traffic report except for those Live NEWS with chopper hoovering over a freeway .

Speak Your Mind

Tell us what you're thinking...