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With BMW unveiling their factory installed in-car iPad dock it got me thinking; why are these positioned in the back seat? Why can’t they be a removable in-car entertainment system which can incorporate GPS and the all the other car and travel based apps?

I know they’re incorporating their BMW Connected service but in my opinion it’s just not quite there yet. However the bit that interests me the most is the communication between BMWs, relaying data and information like “a sensor reports windscreen wiper activity and reduced speed; slippery conditions can thus be inferred. In turn, the “Slippery Conditions Warning” can be provided to other vehicles.”.

Of course BMW would only keep this in their closed network, only other drivers of that brand of car would know this information. If all types of car were to follow this pattern would that mean the more horn honks from white vans mean a hot girl is ahead?
It’s a step in the right direction, but the closed network idea isn’t good enough.

So what apps are available to everyone (with smartphones) are out there at the moment?

First up is the official Live UK Traffic app from The Highways Agency is the most official, getting it’s information direct from the Agency’s National Traffic Control Centre. Splashed in red across the top is a BIG warning about not using your mobile while driving, and as extra discouragement the warnings are wordy and cluttered, you can tune into traffic updates via the app, but surely most modern cars have that functionality built in to it’s own tuner already.

There are a couple of Traffic Camera based Apps, most notably Traffic Eye and JamCam but they are just as they say they are, the CCTV of upcoming roads, no more information than that, just a bunch of parked or in-motion cars on a road.

Next up are the big players, the TomTom, Navigon etc. These are nice, TomTom has it’s HDTraffic updates, which I’m guessing gets it’s data from the same place as the Live UK Traffic app but they are also expensive and it’s the social part of traffic that I’m really interested in.

So next up is Waze, now this is more like it. Pooling crowd-sourced traffic data via Twitter, Foursquare and it’s own UI reporting system, this App is the way forward. I’d argue that it’s slightly too small on a smartphone but returning to the original discussion point this app would be ideal if this were on a dashboard mounted iPad.

I realise that updating a crowdsourcing app is probably not the most safety conscious idea, so how could this model be improved? By using a direct link into the car’s onboard computer, registering when windscreen wipers are used or the brakes are being pressed repeatedly etc. Or even use some of the tech already inside a device such as the iPad like it’s accelerometer and A-GPS to measure (or at least for the time being; guess) traffic conditions. How about introducing Geo-Fencing to traffic apps? How about introducing integration with augmented reality? Oh, that’s been done already, kinda.

So what direction should these traffic apps be driven in? Park your comments in the box below.

Written by Pieter Westerhof

*Update*

Students at MIT are currently researching something along these lines

“MIT’s CarTel project is investigating how cars themselves could be used as ubiquitous, highly reliable mobile sensors. At the Association for Computing Machinery’s sixth annual Workshop on Foundations of Mobile Computing on Sept. 16, members of the CarTel team presented a new algorithm that would optimize the dissemination of data through a network of cars with wireless connections.”

Have a look at the article right here. Via MIT

*Update 2*

A new Social Network aimed at people who can ‘claim’ their number plate has been released in The States, opening the doors to some very interesting ideas.

“Once it gains ground, Thrower said, the possibilities for Bump are nearly endless. Fleets and cab companies can use Bump to contact their drivers, meter maids can alert you when your car is about to get towed, car manufacturers can send important recall information directly to Bump accounts and eventually drivers will be able to renew their licenses and registrations through the service.”

And read that article here. /Via Wired