Big Data Startups Making for an Easier Commute

Many emerging Big Data start ups are smaller B2B solutions providers that are not in the headlines, and they may never become mainstream names like Splunk.  In the recent Wall Street Journal article, ¨Tapping 'Big Data' to Fill Potholes,¨ several of these smaller startups are mentioned with a theme to help drivers to avoid traffic issues.  Intrix Inc. has turned its data analysis into a viable commercial businesses by generating revenue from the state of New Jersey and has plenty more highways in the world it can potentially expand to.  According to the article, Inrix and, “The New Jersey center offers a glimpse at the power of "big data," a term for techniques to gather reams of computerized information points, analyze them and spit out patterns, often in easy-to-understand visuals like maps or charts.”

In addition to traffic authorities having better information to deal with traffic concerns, Google maps and navigation systems are telling more and more every day to consumers about travel conveniences.  Both mobile phone applications as will as in car services such as OnStar make this possible.  These companies are using both live update information as well as historic traffic pattern data to predict congestion and travel time.

INRIX Inc. is not only getting involved with helping states to improve their traffic situation, they have also recently been selected by BMW to improve navigation and fuel economy efforts. This is a great opportunity for them and we will keep you posted on progress on their partnership.

In addition to Inrix, both RAC & Waze have interesting related stories:

RAC - Over in the UK the RAC uses vehicle data to identify congestion situations.  This insurance based firm has a business model that is designed to utilize navigation and data from vehicles to provide additional value for Breakdown Coverage services.

WAZE - Another startup, called Waze Inc. concentrates on mobile applications catered towards navigation and traffic patterns.  In fact they tell you the optimal times to travel for holiday weekends!  Check it out for your next vacation!

These are just a couple of the business models that are looking to establish commercial businesses of traffic and navigation.   If you are interested in other start ups leveraging Big Data, another great site called Beautiful Data recently came out with a list of Top 10 hot big data start ups that is worth taking a look at!  Let us know if you know of any other interesting Big Data efforts we should continue to keep an eye on!