Realtime car traffic data company Inrix has been selected by Google to provide traffic data to help power the search giant’s navigation and mapping applications.
Inrix, which just raised $37 million from Kleiner Perkins and August Capital, aggregates and crowdsources real-time traffic information from more than 30 million sources including cars, taxis, delivery vehicles, trucks and other channels, Inrix’s data software aggregates and enhances traffic-related information from hundreds of public and private sources and then sells this data to mobile app developers and websites.
Currently the company offers data for 22 countries across North America and Europe and reaches more than 100 million users. Inrix’s other partners include Audi AG, ADAC, ALK, ANWB, Coyote, the Ford Motor Company, I-95 Coalition, MapQuest, Microsoft, NAVIGON, Tele Atlas, Telmap, TeleNav, Texas Transportation Institute and Toyota. In an ongoing independent test of traffic information in the world, the University of Maryland found Inrix’s real-time traffic information to be accurate within 5 mph of actual traffic speeds over 90 percent of the time.
Inrix says that the flexibility and architecture of its fusion engine and APIs makes it easy tof partners to integrate the data. With Google, Inrix went from contract to implementation in under 45 days. Initially available in 8 countries, Inrix’s real-time traffic information for all major motorways will be integrated with Google products and services online and on mobile phones.
The Google deal is no doubt a big win for Inrix. Google Maps is easily one of Google’s more popular products, and a partnership (if things go well) should be a big revenue boost for the Kleiner-backed company. The deal, however, is not exclusive. Google will be getting some of its traffic data from other sources.
A Google spokesperson issues this statement: Google is committed to providing our users with the richest, most up-to-date maps possible, including live traffic updates. The traffic data on Google Maps comes from a variety of sources, including government departments of transportation, private data providers, and users of Google Maps for mobile who contribute anonymous speed information through our traffic crowdsourcing feature.
