New App Shares Connected Car Data to Government, Businesses

"A new platform that aims to use big data collected from connected cars for better urban planning, retail site selection and advertising measurement has been launched," according to a post by Emily Garthwaite.

Inrix, the company behind the new platform, is a "global transportation and connected car services provider." The new product, Inrix Insights, provides a platform for parsing out and analyzing the data created and gathered by the use of those services. According to Garthwaite, "Businesses and governments could use the platform, which leverages real-time GPS data from a growing network of more than 250 million devices and vehicles, for planning new roads and transit systems, locating a business or measuring the results of marketing campaign." So far the Insights platforms offers two products: Inrix Insight Trips and Inrix Insight Volumes.

Another post by Traffic Technology Today provides more of the nitty gritty of how the platform works.

For those concerned about privacy when using connected cars, as expressed by Jeremy Cato in an October 2014 op-ed, this platform provides just one example of the kind of information that will be accessible to public and private entities as a result of the use of connected cars at scale.