Vodafone ties up with Tom Tom

The system comes about following Tomtom's recent acquisition [2005] of a small Scottish company, Applied Generics. That company had software, called Rodin24, which gathers data from a GSM network.

Basically what Vodafone and Tomtom are doing is working out how many handsets are operating in a given area and extrapolating from that how many drivers are stuck on a particular stretch of road.

The system can also work out how fast handset owners are travelling. So if they're not doing about 60 mph on a motorway, the software works out that there must be a problem.

The system is believed to be working already in the UK and the Netherlands. It warns drivers by showing open roads as green and jams as red. µ

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