Will the relentless growth of Google lead to it becoming the ultimate provider of travel information services? Huw Williams investigates Google’s strategy and David Crawford discovers what two principal rivals are doing to keep pace. In the first weeks of 2012 one company staked two divergent claims on the future of transport. One is the science fiction of only a decade ago, turned into reality: the driverless car. The other seems more prosaic, yet in its own way is just as significant a marker of the futur
David Crawford admires TomTom’s flying start to 2012. Gobal location and navigation equipment supplier TomTom rang in 2012 with two strategically important announcements. First was the signing of a deal with Korean electronics giant Samsung, representing an important consolidation of its position in the consumer market. Under this agreement, TomTom maps and location content will power the Samsung Wave3 smartphone, launched in autumn 2011. TomTom data will support navigation and search-and-find applications
New systems of software are coming together to form the technological backbone of a project that will apply practically to one corridor in Dallas, but influence travel across a wider area. Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) is the lead agency for an extensive Integrated Corridor Management (ICM) project in Dallas, covering an area stretching north east of downtown Dallas, 20 miles long by two miles wide. The corridor is defined loosely by the US-75 freeway and DART’s light rail ‘red line’. These are the theor
The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) has released phase 1 of CDOT Mobile – The Official App, its new, free Smartphone mobile application for travellers, which launches with the I-70 mountain corridor, which is used an average of 30,000 vehicles each day. The app is designed specifically to improve the travel experience on Colorado roadways by making critical information such as highway conditions and traffic information more accessible, dynamic and interactive. There is no cost to the taxpayer,
