Dutch company TomTom has launched a new traffic cooperation tool to facilitate the exchange of traffic data with cities, road authorities and other mobility stakeholders.

TomTom’s new easy-to-use Road Event Reporter tool will enable selected customers and partners to share traffic information related to accidents, roadworks or road hazards with millions of connected road users.

TomTom Traffic and Travel vice-president Ralf-Peter Schäfer said: “Accurate and fresh traffic data helps drivers and fleet managers route around problematic areas.

"This saves time, fuel and reduces emissions.

“This data can also be used to monitor and analyse traffic and network performance.

“By sharing their traffic incident data with us, road authorities, transportation companies and other mobility players using Road Event Reporter can directly influence the traffic, reducing overall congestion.”

Using traffic cooperation technology, the new tool will be able to share traffic data in real time, which can be directly transmitted onto global positioning system (GPS) navigation devices, in-car navigation systems, or in mobile applications.

The Road Event Reporter tool streamlines traffic data, thereby closing the loop between road authorities and road users.

The new TomTom tool, which is a user-friendly, web-based application, allows users to not only report events in real-time but also share those that are planned to occur in the future, from any internet-enabled computer.

"Accurate and fresh traffic data helps drivers and fleet managers route around problematic areas."

The event can be on the map in the application, and after being submitted to TomTom, the data will automatically be placed in the traffic fusion engine and will be validated using current GPS observations from millions of vehicles.

If the data is precise, the message is sent in the next update of TomTom Traffic service to be used by all users.

The entire process, from creation to being displayed on connected devices to assisting drivers in taking decisions to minimising delays on their journey, can be completed in only a few minutes.

Image: The TomTom tool on a laptop. Photo: courtesy of TomTom.