Not far away are the GPS equipped cell phones that will receive traffic updates and turn-by-turn instructions about driving. Though its development is still in process, efforts have already been made to take the technology to next level by converting them in to devices reporting traffic data.

Cell phones are anticipated to become probes in a huge network of phones reporting their travel rate, location, and direction while in a vehicle in motion. This kind of a network will probably generate traffic congestion and real time road speed reports that may be sent to other cell phone users, PNDs (Portable Navigation Devices), and installed navigation systems. The geographic coverage of the network will likely surpass the coverage that traffic reporting networks of today offer.

The real time traffic services of today, delivers traffic-incident information in less than 50 markets. Also, they provide limited information on road speed, that too mainly about the prominent highways. More accurate coverage of almost all roads will be allowed by probe data, as per suppliers.

Various companies are assessing ways by which they can use GPS equipped cell phones for obtaining traffic information, at the same time keeping cell phone owner's privacy rights protected.

Most firms that send traffic news to cellular phones and PDNs are in fact beginning to improve their reports with the help of probe data, usually accumulated from fleets and trucks already on-the-road and using some sort of location device for reporting to the dispatchers.

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