Tracking traffic with mobile phones
February 13, 2008 by George Skentzos
Nokia may have succeeded where major car and telematics companies have failed, using the combination of GPS satellite navigation and mobile phone technology to accurately report information about traffic flow patterns in real time and calculate alternative routes.
The system works by relaying the speed and location of a phone within a vehicle to a traffic control centre which creates a picture of traffic conditions using the data from many phones.
Current systems incorporating complex and expensive infrastructure of roadside and pavement-mounted sensors and cameras are far more expensive and less accurate than the mobile system.
Additionally, by tracking the data from a phone as opposed to the car itself, the stigma associated with the “virtual speed camera” is avoided.
The system, dubbed Mobile Century, is still in the concept phase, however initial tests have proven to be very promising.
Print it: 
******PRIMO!*****
One day they will make a cell phone thats JUST-A-PHONE, no GPS, no camera, no video, no sms, no nothing.
JUST-A-PHONE! :-)
Cheers
F-0
frugal one,
a phone thats just a phone? you will get chucked in the loony bin for such outrageous comments.
they will liken you to Marty Mcfly and his outrageous comments regarding the future in that great movie “back to the future”
whats that I can hear???? Telco data charges??
Great idea, sadly the big telco’s will bend you over on the data chargers!!!
Great, Speeding Tickets by SMS directly debited to your phone account!
Huge potential for cost effective traffic management solutions.
For anyone interested & has the time an indepth presentation of this california based experiment are available on you tube
– type in
Joint Nokia research project to capture traffic data
This must be better than current Sat Navs which are Ok but not good. There was a Polish HGV driven in Cornwall UK who got stuck in a lane for 3 days after following his SatNav. Now theres Progress