Inrix expands real-time traffic network in Europe

163 Inrix has announced that it has expanded its European real-time traffic coverage to 18 countries, making it the largest traffic network in Europe.

With the launch of real-time traffic information in Ireland, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia since February, the company’s traffic services now cover more than one million kilometres of motorways, city streets and secondary roads, throughout Europe which Inrix claims is more than twice the amount of real-time road coverage of its nearest competitor.

In a separate announcement, Inrix says it has introduced a breakthrough in the delivery of traffic information called TPEG Connect. Based on the new encoding and transmission standard for traffic and travel information developed by the Transport Protocol Experts Group (TPEG), Inrix TPEG Connect provides automakers and navigation application providers with the ability to optimise payloads and bandwidth for delivering richer real-time and predictive traffic flow, incident, and location-based services like weather conditions on the road to devices using TPEG over IP. By providing delta support that can reduce data payloads by up to 50 per cent on each message request, says its new breakthrough helps OEMs and consumers save on connectivity costs by reducing data consumption in ways that ensures only the most location-relevant real-time information is delivered to the device.

Inrix has also announced an agreement with road safety products and services company 1940 Coyote Systems to provide real-time traffic information in future Coyote products. As Coyote's preferred global provider of traffic information, Inrix and Coyote will work together to apply each other's expertise in user-generated content for the development of future products and services across Europe.

As Inrix in Europe expands, the company has hired Rolf Kanne, the former head of sales for 295 Navteq's T-Systems Traffic, and Guillaume Taton, an experienced mobile and navigation industry professional. As these two industries converge, the company says that Rolf and Guillaume offer European customers a unique perspective having worked in mobile and automotive companies throughout the course of their careers.