Mercedes-Benz is collaborating with Daimler, TomTom and Deutsche Telekom (News - Alert) to take its quality of traffic information technology used in its vehicles to heightened levels. 

Mercedes-Benz Live Traffic is touted as the traffic information technology of the future. To the vehicle, it’s expected to deliver the latest traffic information, including tailback reports, current traffic density, traffic holdups or travel warnings, in real time. For this purpose, Deutsche Telekom has developed a communication infrastructure, specifically for Mercedes-Benz.

Moreover, Mercedes-Benz intends to install a communication module in its vehicles, which will provide constant connectivity with the Cloud. The mobile data transfer is taken care by the machine-to-machine (M2M) SIM chip integrated into the communication module, according to company officials.

TomTom (News - Alert) has provided the real-time information on the current traffic via its HD Traffic service. This information enables the COMAND navigation system to display the length and starting point of a tailback on the map to an accuracy of 100 metres. Company officials said that the system also calculates improved dynamic route guidance with shorter travel times.

Automatically, the COMAND Online navigation system displays the potential loss of time, which is reflected in the arrival time. Company officials said that Mercedes-Benz Live Traffic works as a real-time traffic reporter to make a direct contribution to superior data quality.

Simultaneously, along with the reception of up-to-date traffic information, the vehicle retrieves its own traffic data and sends it to the TomTom traffic data centre at every two minutes, said company officials. The traffic data centre transmits the results after combining information from all sources on the current traffic conditions.

Mercedes-Benz plans to soon offer this service in its new vehicle models. Moreover, the company expects to equip most models with Live Traffic by the end of this year.

Recently, TomTom announced that Daimler will equip the upcoming Mercedes-Benz vehicles with TomTom Traffic.

Edited by Ashley Caputo