A startrescue.co.uk story...

During a recent morning rush hour in the UK there were 1,935 miles of traffic jams and 1,268 traffic incidents, 896 of which were on major roads. How do I know this? Because sat-nav firm TomTom told me. The impressive thing about this is, firstly, the accuracy of the data, but secondly, that it was in the public domain via a press release by lunchtime the same day. Sat-nav isn’t just about plotting a route these days. Users of certain TomTom units get technology called HD Traffic, which beams their personal journey times back to HQ for speedy analysis. It’s instantly fed back into the system to be part of the TomTom Live subscription service, which allows drivers to get traffic updates on the hoof. Your sat-nav can even automatically reroute you if it finds a quicker way of getting from A to B. All this is very impressive, but it leads me to one question. If we can do all this clever hi-tech stuff, why can’t we develop a road surface that doesn’t crumble into potholes at the first sign of snow?