Technology is transforming the way people drive, through innovations ranging from in-car navigation systems to road sensors that report current traffic conditions. But Kirkland, Washington–based Inrix believes that we have only scratched the surface in terms of technology’s potential to help drivers plan better routes and avoid traffic jams.

Solutions on the market today can give drivers an approximate idea of what traffic conditions are like at a given moment, or they can plot the shortest route to a destination based on street maps and speed limits. But today’s traffic data doesn’t help drivers make driving decisions tomorrow, next week, or next year. And mapping systems don’t account for dynamic variables that can affect traffic patterns, such as bad weather or congestion from cars headed to a baseball game. In instances like these, the shortest route might not always be the quickest.

Building on Microsoft® technologies, Inrix takes traffic information to a new level, helping drivers make better decisions through both real-time and predictive traffic data built on information from a wide range of sources—from road sensors to GPS information drawn from fleet vehicles—as well as sophisticated modeling and prediction techniques originally developed at Microsoft Research.

Inrix offers three key services that help commuters and commercial drivers save time and money by offering better advice and more route and timing choices:

Using the Microsoft platform, Inrix offers real-time and prediction data as XML Web services so its customers can provide more useful and actionable traffic data to end users. For example, automakers and device manufacturers can incorporate these services into their in-car navigation systems, or cellular operators can offer real-time traffic maps and predictions on Windows Mobile®–based devices. Inrix customers include device makers TomTom and Cobra Electronics, wireless operators Cingular and Alltel, Web portals such as Microsoft’s MSN®, the Virginia and North Carolina departments of transportation, and dozens of other major organizations.

With these solutions, customers can get useful answers to practical driving questions such as when a traffic jam is likely to clear, the quickest route to take next week, or the optimal time to leave for work in the morning to avoid traffic congestion. For commuters, this means less time on the road and more time with their families. For businesses, it means greater efficiency and lower costs, as well as the ability to meet specific service-level agreements with customers.

Microsoft Technologies Enable Easy Development

Inrix’s Traffic Fusion Engine, which provides functions such as data aggregation, analysis, and timely, reliable delivery to customers via XML-based Web services, was built on the Microsoft platform. Inrix uses the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 and SQL Server™ 2005 Enterprise Edition as the framework for the engine, and it uses Visual C++® for Windows Mobile to deliver its solutions on capable mobile devices. The company has developed proprietary code in Visual C#®, based on ASP.NET 2.0 Web services. Inrix servers largely run Windows Server® 2003, and the majority of Inrix’s database code leverages the power and capabilities of SQL Server 2005.

“We chose Microsoft technologies to run the Traffic Fusion Engine because they’re so easy to develop on,” says Craig Chapman, Inrix’s chief technology officer. “For example, writing database code is much simpler on SQL Server 2005 than anything else we’ve seen. In particular, C# under .NET 2.0 has been instrumental in the creation and delivery of our data products to end users. All of our Windows services are written completely in C#, and .NET 2.0 technologies such as Generics have allowed us to develop our server code quickly.”

Adds Chapman: “It also helps that most of our developers are already very familiar with Microsoft technologies.”

At the heart of Inrix’s services is the Smart Dust Network, which acquires real-time and historical sensor data from hundreds of public and private sources. Leveraging the Microsoft platform, the company is currently processing and analyzing billions of traffic-related data points in real time. These include real-time GPS probe data from more than 500,000 commercial fleet, delivery, and taxi vehicles, anonymous information from “toll tag” transponders such as California’s FasTrak system, and occupancy and speed measurements from road sensor networks installed in many cities across the United States. The network also pulls together real-time information about accidents and other obstructions, as well as other unique data that influences traffic patterns, such as construction and road closures, sports and entertainment events, school schedules, and weather. The network currently provides traffic incident information for 138 metropolitan areas around the United States, as well as real-time speed information for 38 of those cities. Inrix is expanding its traffic coverage to 50 cities and the entire U.S. highway system by the end of 2006, primarily by continuing to rapidly expand its unique probe data network.

Together, these data sources can provide a more complete picture of what traffic is like today and what it will be like in the future. The key to making such predictions is Bayesian analysis—a statistical technique used to estimate the probability of future occurrences using historical data about past occurrences alongside other variables that could affect the outcome. Researchers at Microsoft had previously used such techniques to improve the accuracy of spam filters, and they had also developed an application that uses Bayesian analyses to predict traffic patterns in and around Seattle, Washington. The traffic analysis technology was then licensed exclusively to Inrix through Microsoft’s IP Ventures program. (More information about IP Ventures is available at http://www.microsoft.com/ip).

“Building on Microsoft Research’s original work, the strength of Microsoft’s server platform, and the simplicity of Microsoft’s development tools, our company is able to literally predict the future—turning tremendous amounts of data into services that can add to companies’ bottom lines and make a real difference in commuters’ lives,” says Scott Sedlik, Inrix’s vice president of marketing.

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Microsoft Intellectual Property (IP) Licensing group

The IP Ventures program is part of the Microsoft Intellectual Property (IP) Licensing group which also consists of a Technology Licensing team, which licenses component technologies, research, protocols, standards, and file formats. The IP Ventures program spins out a wide range of technologies to entrepreneurs and startups.

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