IBM wants to predict the best commute for you

Tired of sitting in traffic? IBM just announced a new Smarter Traveler research initiative that could eventually help you find a faster commute.

The news comes at a time when more and more mapping and driving services are incorporating traffic data. One of the most interesting examples is Waze, an app that takes crowdsourced GPS data from its users to warn them about bad traffic. But traffic conditions can change — even if the freeway near your office is clear now, it may be totally jammed when you get there in 45 minutes.

So IBM says it?s taking things a step further. It uses the data that?s already being gathered at roads, toll booths, intersections, and elsewhere, while also looking at GPS information from participants? cell phones about their personal commute habits and preferences. Then it takes a new model that the company has developed to actually predict what the traffic will be like when the driver is on the road. If traffic is going to be bad and you should take an a different way to work, the program will alert you via email or text message before your drive. Users will also be able to log into a Smarter Traveler website to see their commute forecast and predictions for alternate routes.

You can see an illustration of the concept in the video below. This is just a research project for now, with a number of participants testing it in the San Francisco Bay Area, so it may be a while before this becomes available commercially (if ever). But it?s an ambitious and promising idea, and IBM is working with some big-name partners — the California Department of Transportation and the California Center for Innovative Transportation at UC Berkeley.

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