CONVENIENT: According to Tele Atlas, future navigation devices may not only give directions but also traffic information, bus and train schedules as well as pedestrian crossings.

DIGITAL maps provider Tele Atlas will be tapping into the knowledge of Malaysians and the other peoples of Asia Pacific to make its products even more accurate and to further expand its ­operations in the region.

“People buy navigation systems because they want to save time and fuel getting to their destinations,” Tele Atlas South-Asia Pacific managing director Arnout Desmet told In.Tech in an interview recently.

With this in mind, the Belgium-based company came out with its Traffic Message Channel (TMC) solution, which is a protocol for traffic information integration and distribution.

TMC links a vehicle’s navigation system with traffic control centres to inform users of congested routes. “It automatically finds an alternative route to guide a user to his ­destination (if the one being used is ­congested or closed),” Desmet explained.

This, he said, is beneficial to city dwellers who have to brave traffic jams just to get to work and back.

Desmet said navigational devices without TMC are not as useful. “Users have to manually find alternative routes on their devices after hearing about a jam (over the radio or via text messages),” he claimed.

Speed up

Tele Atlas hopes to also integrate historical speed information into the system, to better estimate the time of arrival for the user.

This information, said Desmet, will need to be gathered over a few years but once compiled, the system will be able to explain why it has chosen an unusual route to a destination.

“If a user asks for a route during the morning rush hour, the system might give him a longer route that is shorter in time, rather than try to guide him through a shorter but more jam-packed path,” he explained.

Desmet said TMC is being used in Singapore, Europe and North America. Tele Atlas is also deploying the system in Thailand and hopes to promote the system to Malaysian authorities.

“We want to work with the traffic police as well as third-party integrators,” he added.

And with local knowledge from users, Tele Atlas will be able to produce more accurate maps, according to Desmet.

With its Mapshare service, Tele Atlas receives feedback on routes from users and the maps are automatically updated. Users can immediately make corrections on the digital maps through MapShare.

The service is in use in Europe through a partnership with navigational device maker TomTom.

Desmet believes MapShare will be ­popular when it is introduced in the region sometime next year.

“There is a strong incentive for people to report changes because they will also get up-to-date ­navigation information,” he said.

Tele Atlas also validates the information received from users on changes to the digital maps. One of the ways of validating the ­information is when the company receives many similar requests pertaining to a ­particular route.

“We also run algorithms to validate the feedback, as well as compare them with our own findings,” Desmet said.

Relatively new

Tele Atlas expanded its operations to the Asia-Pacific region just two years ago. To gain a stronger foothold in the region, it intends to also introduce digital maps for pedestrians and users of public transport.

“More and more of these types of travellers are ­interested in using navigational devices,” said Desmet.

“Also, in Asia-Pacific, the average ownership of vehicles is much lower compared to that in North America and Europe.”

However, he said it will be a challenge to cater services to pedestrians because they use roads differently from ­drivers.

“They use zebra crossings, pedestrian bridges and ­underpasses, so it is ­important to model the map network to include all these features,” he said.

For public transport users, schedules for public buses and trains will need to be included and this won’t be easy.

“Many of the schedules are time sensitive so we need third-party content providers like bus companies or content integrators that can provide us with accurate information,” Desmet said.