Autodesk Location Services and Verizon Wireless today announced the availability of location-based traffic alert services for Verizon’s vtext.com text-messaging portal.
With the service, Verizon customers can log into www.vtext.com and set up specific routes for which to view traffic information and choose a time, or several times, for text-message alerts to be sent to their handsets to notify them of any traffic tie-ups.
Autodesk collects its information from TeleAtlas, which aggregates real-time traffic data from Westwood One and Clear Channel, which provide such information to radio and TV stations. Autodesk then works the information into a “personalized and actionable” message, which Joe Astroth, executive vice president at Autodesk, believes are key components to any location-based mobile service.
An Autodesk alert, for example, goes something like this: “Accident. I 880 NB at Broadway. Up to 15-minute delay. Clearing 2:51pm.” The message puts the most important information in the beginning of the message, gives the exact location of the incident and predicts how long the delay is or when it will be cleared.
Other competing services, according to Astroth, do not prioritize the message fields, give less-precise locations and do not predict clean-up or delay times, leaving the customer less likely to act on the information.
Astroth said Autodesk is capable of provisioning traffic information to users within seconds of it becoming available in the TeleAtlas server. Of course, the reliability of the information as it relates to a user’s commute depends on when a user has chosen to receive an alert since incident reports are sent only at those times.
To kick off the service, Verizon will launch a “Skip the Traffic” promotion featuring free traffic alerts during the upcoming Fourth of July holiday weekend, hoping to draw consumer travelers to the service.
Beginning July 7, the service will cost 2 cents for each message received. Bundled plans are also available, including $3 per month for 100 messages, $5 per month for 250 messages and $10 per month for 1,000 messages sent or received.
Enterprise users, as well as consumers, are being targeted as potential customers, and Astroth said Autodesk is working with Verizon on programs specifically geared toward business users.
Going forward, Autodesk hopes to enhance the service to allow customers to request traffic information directly from the handset, to view maps from the handset and to receive real-time traffic alerts as they drive a route.
“We hope this will be one of many services we location enable for Verizon in the coming months,” said Astroth.
In other location-based service news last week, Microsoft Corp. said European mobile operators O2 and TeliaSonera will deliver real-time location services designed to allow businesses to locate, track and manage their mobile assets and mobile workforce. The services use the Microsoft MapPoint Location Server, which allows developers to integrate real-time location information into business applications.
