Los Angeles - CA United States
The big idea: In 25 words or less, please tell us how this Fast 50 Nominee is helping to address the planet's problems.
INRIX pioneered the use of real-time location and speed information from over 800,000 vehicles to deliver traffic information for the entire U.S. roadway network
Please describe how this nominee is using business as a force of positive change. What technology, idea, or strategy is the nominee using -- and what problem, such as global warming, poverty, or pollution, does it address? (suggested length: 100 words)
Traffic congestion on our nation’s freeways and highways continues to worsen in urban areas of all sizes. According to the Texas Transportation Institute’s 2007 Urban Mobility Report:
The average annual commuter delay during rush hour has increased from 31 hours in 1995 to 38 hours in 2005, congestion caused urban Americans to travel 4.2 billion hours more and to purchase an extra 2.9 billion gallons of fuel for a congestion cost of $78 billion, twenty eight urban areas in the U.S. have more than 40 hours of “annual delay per commuter,” up from only 11 urban areas two decades ago.
With no near-term solutions in sight to ease the overwhelming impact of traffic congestion for consumers and businesses, market demand is rapidly increasing for products and services designed to help avoid traffic congestion or minimize delays associated with it. In a recent study of consumers by Driscoll-Wolfe, 79% of commuters indicated a high level of interest in real-time traffic information, including 48% indicating they would use a real-time traffic service daily. Additionally, over 1.5 million automobiles with embedded navigation systems and 2.5 million portable navigation systems were sold in the U.S. in 2006, with over 70% of manufacturers planning to make traffic-enabled navigation standard in future models.
Since its spinout from Microsoft Research Labs three years ago, INRIX has revolutionized the navigation and location-based services industries with its innovative approaches and technologies for aggregating, analyzing and distributing traffic information. GPS systems used to just tell drivers how to get from point A to point B, but now these devices are commonplace. Thanks to INRIX, the promise of GPS is finally being realized: consumers will now be able to better plan their routes and timing, resulting in less gas used, less stress, less money spent, less air pollution, less time wasted and more.
INRIX just announced its Connected Services Platform, encompassing the world’s first time-intelligent routing engine, dynamic traffic data covering 800,000 miles of roadways, additional location-relevant content, and a developer zone designed to greatly simplify.
INRIX's ‘third generation’ routing engine goes beyond current state-of-the-market “traffic avoidance” routing algorithms to incorporate real-time, predictive and historical traffic information providing consumers with accurate fastest-route calculations. Leveraging the temporal nature of traffic information on road segments along potential routes, INRIX routing algorithms can intelligently evaluate multiple routes and apply the most relevant fusion of traffic information available across each segment of roadway along the entire route. This groundbreaking service looks into the future to determine how traffic is expected to change along the course of travel – a breakthrough in providing better routes and more accurate travel times to consumers.
Thanks to INRIX's technology, drivers who commute on back roads can also receive real-time traffic information about their route. With INRIX's Total Fusion users are able to access coverage on the side streets and neighborhoods – this is where it’s really relevant to individuals and where the paradigm shift is. INRIX Total Fusion is the first traffic data service that intelligently combines real-time, predictive and historical traffic information for over 800,000 miles of roadways across the U.S. INRIX Total Fusion is the ideal solution for a rich connected navigation experience, providing speed information for busy city streets and congested arterials in addition to major freeways and the entire U.S. interstate highway system.
It seamlessly integrates the company's traffic data and time-intelligent, traffic-influenced routing with other dynamic and location-relevant content aggregated by INRIX including map data, fuel prices, weather, movie times, local search and more
Before INRIX's Connected Services, the navigation industry was highly fragmented. Device makers would need to license a routing engine, map data, traffic data and other content from various vendors and then put all of that in one device. The barrier has been too high. Now, INRIX has put all the pieces together into one easy to use platform that enables our customers to provide solutions directly to the consumer.
INRIX's groundbreaking navigational services allow businesses to swiftly achieve their go-to-market strategies by providing a one stop shop for location-relevant content along with a suite of developer tools for easy access to content and services to meet the demands of the mass market.
With over 55 customers and industry partners in North America and Europe including TomTom, MapQuest, Microsoft, Clear Channel Radio’s Total Traffic Network, TeleNav, I-95 Corridor Coalition, Tele Atlas, deCarta, Mio, Navigon, TCS, and Telmap, , INRIX delivers the highest quality data and broadest coverage available for personal navigation, mapping, telematics and other location-based service applications in the car, online and on mobile devices.
What are the results, both financial and social? How has the nominee's business performed, and what impact has it had on the problem it addresses? (suggested length: 100 words)
INRIX Traffic is now available on over 100 portable and automotive navigation devices and cell phone models. In 2008, INRIX launched its traffic to the 50 million visitors on MapQuest.com, won a multimillion dollar contract with the 16-state I-95 Coalition of transportation agencies, and launched its services in Europe.
Traffic-aware navigation like INRIX's Connected Services platform is helping the average driver save about 32 gallons of gasoline per year and reduce CO emissions by nearly 30,000 grams simply by helping them effectively reach their destination. INRIX technology also allows consumers to have traffic insight on back roads, making their entire commute seamless.
