Abstract
The widespread deployment of devices to collect and transmit the data that vehicles can sense and the development of processing centers to analyze and exploit this data have great promise to advance both public and commercial objectives. The public objectives include better, more efficient, and more economical management of the transportation infrastructure, more effective management of traffic to enhance throughput and contain congestion, and helping to assure the safety and security of the vehicle and its occupants. Commercial objectives include enhancing telematics services to provide functionality for which customers are willing to pay and enabling a new generation of active safety products that have the promise of substantially improving road safety. There are a variety of technical, financial, social, and political issues which have to be addressed to realize the potential benefits of gathering and exploiting probe data.