Go and Track GPS Tracking

INRIX, the Seattle-based provider of real-time and predictive traffic data, has announced this week it has been selected by TomTom as its “strategic partner for TomTom LIVE real-time traffic and fuel price information in North America”. INRIX has been providing traffic data to TomTom for a long time (via RDS-TMC and Bluetooth/GPRS); however, when TomTom launched its first connected PND in January this year in the United States, it chose to work with another provider called TrafficCast (read more here).

INRIX’s real-time traffic information is currently available for 126 markets and 160,000 miles of roads in the U.S. and Canada. The company is also providing dynamic fuel prices for over 80,000 gas stations to TomTom via its partnership with OPIS.

It is not clear why TomTom is moving back to its previous supplier after only a few months of collaboration with TraffficCast – even if the existing TomTom GO LIVE 740 will continue to use this traffic data.(read our UPDATE)

Whatever is the reason of this change, it reveals first that TomTom do not expect to launch its own HD Traffic system in the near term in the United States. Second, there is a high probability that the PND maker will launch new connected devices for the US market in the coming months – if not weeks. We can indeed guess that the company is to release an american equivalent to its €220 connected PND (TomTOm XL LIVE IQ Routes). Wait and see…

UPDATED:

It seems the TomTom traffic information procurement policy is not quite as clear as INRIX would like to see it. Indeed, TomTom is more likely to rely on both suppliers in the future. According to Tom Murray, vice president of market development at TomTom: “TomTom continues to use a dual-source business strategy to offer traffic and other real-time information to our customers. We have active relationships with both INRIX and TrafficCast who are recognized as leading providers of predictive traffic data and other information supporting in-car navigation.”