Arriving on time for the year-end travel season, Navigon’s Traffic Live feature is now available as an in-app purchase in their MobileNavigator application. Arriving on time is what Navigon is all about. Our initial review of MobileNavigator covered the core features of the app’s functionality. Now, we want to take a look at the Traffic Live paid add-on and see if it’s worth your additional $25 (currently on sale for $14.99). From our experience, the short answer is yes. Let me explain why.
Last night, we were on our way home from our regular 30 mile commute. The normal travel time is approximately 35 minutes. Although quite familiar with the route, I wanted to test out Traffic Live to see what it suggested for our ride. Interestingly, soon after departure, MobileNavigator suggested an alternative route to the one I had in mind. I was alerted of this by the new red traffic icon illuminating in the upper left my iPhone’s screen. Tapping the icon brought up more detailed information about the traffic problems. Two routes were now before me, my usual course home and a suggested route to avoid the traffic congestion. Both routes offered approximate arrival time calculations. I was shocked to see that my preferred course would take me about an hour while the suggested route would take 30 minutes. I like to blame my next decision on wanting to test the Traffic Live feature’s trustworthiness, but it probably amounts to stubbornness and inflexibility on my part. You guessed it, I chose my normal route. And boy was I sorry. After sitting in an hour and fifteen minutes of unexplainable traffic, we arrived home.
The question is how did Traffic Live know about the impeding delay in my normal route? Unlike most standalone GPS devices, including Navigon’s, that obtain traffic information via FM broadcast, MobileNavigator now pulls the info from your iPhone’s data connection. This aspect really drives the technology to a new level. How so? Traffic Live crowdsources the information. This means that traffic conditions and drive times are gathered from other drivers using the app. If motorists decide to opt-in to Traffic Live’s “flow data” collection (free), their experiences are collected and spread with other anonymous travelers using MobileNavigator. The result is an accurate delivery of live traffic information for motorists in areas around the world. My only solace in the terrible drive last night was that my information was helping other MobileNavigator users avoid my mistake.
Traffic Live brings two new items to the options menu. Consider Traffic Information grants the ability to turn traffic sensitive information off, adjust routes automatically, or deliver warnings on request. Users can also choose whether or not they want to participate in data collection by turning Submit Flow Data on or off. If you would like to see nearby traffic conditions at any time, tap on the More tab at the bottom of the main menu. Then tap Traffic. What follows is a closest-first display of traffic issues in the area. Tapping on an item brings up a more detailed explanation of the incident. We were surprised to see the level of information given. For example, the traffic page displays a pan-able map of the area along with reason for congestion and average traffic speed. One item was even intelligent enough to give “concert” as the cause of the backup. Certainly a nice level of detail.
What we like about MobileNavigator’s new Traffic Live add-on is its smart, no-confusion, delivery of traffic conditions and rerouting options. The interface is so intuitive that drivers will be making their destinations more efficiently than ever before. The other great aspect of Traffic Live is its aforementioned crowdsourcing ability. Giving drivers the option to assist other drivers in their commutes just makes sense in this connected world. As we stated in our initial review of MobileNavigator, you will want to have a car charger handy, as the always-on status will drain your iPhone’s battery. After spending some time with the Traffic Live feature, we can happily give it our 5-Dimple rating. Currently, the main MobileNavigator app is marked down to $69.99 (normally $89.99) and the Traffic Live add-on is on sale for $14.99 (normally $24.99) through November 30th, 2009.
MobileNavigator North America with Traffic Live gets our AppSmile 5-Dimple rating:
