Las Vegas, NV. – INRIX announced today that it has been selected by the Ford Motor Company to enable the new Ford SYNC™ with Traffic, Directions and Information (announced by Ford separately on Wednesday) featuring personalized driving content and technology from INRIX Connected Services. The new Ford SYNC is the latest version of the award winning fully-integrated, voice activated in-car communication and entertainment system for your mobile phone and digital music player. New Ford car and truck owners will benefit from the latest generation Ford SYNC in-car connectivity platform with personalized voice-enabled traffic reports, traffic-influenced turn-by-turn directions, and traffic alerts provided to Ford, exclusively from INRIX. SYNC with Traffic Directions and Information will be demonstrated at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week and will be available in the Spring of 2009.

Using integrated GPS technology, Ford SYNC with Traffic, Directions and Information connects consumers to personalized traffic reports, precise turn-by-turn directions, business search, news, sports and weather. INRIX has also developed and is hosting components of the Web site for Ford SYNC users at www.syncmyride.com, where users can input preferences such as routing destinations and alert requests to further personalize their Ford SYNC experience.

INRIX Connected Services enhances the SYNC experience with traffic and directions:

• The nation’s broadest and most accurate real-time traffic information
• The world’s first 3rd Generation Routing Engine featuring true time-intelligent, traffic-influenced directions
• Speed information on more than 800,000 miles of roadways
• Personalized traffic alerts delivered in the car New location-aware, consumer-friendly access to traffic info, allowing SYNC users to get answers to questions such as “Traffic Ahead,” “Fastest Route Home,” and “Traffic Around Me”

Listen to traffic and directions audio samples Listen to Traffic audio sample Listen to Directions audio sample Read the entire INRIX release Read Ford's release View more details

At CES this week, Ford announced the new Ford SYNC with Traffic, Directions and Information which provides personalized, real-time information to help drivers get to where they’re going with information they need.

Ford selected INRIX as the best-in-class tier one supplier for SYNC based upon:

• The quality and superior market and road coverage of our traffic data
• The scalability of the INRIX Connected Services platform; and
• Our approach to design and development was highly collaborative, including playing a key role in building out Ford’s partner ecosystem for the SYNC solution

Key Ford SYNC facts:

• By summer 2009, Ford’s entire North American lineup will offer this must-have technology, demonstrating its rapid, consumer-driven adoption. 

• Ford expects to have 1 million SYNC-equipped vehicles on the road by the third quarter of 2009.
• SYNC-equipped Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles sell nearly twice as fast as those without, and a Ford survey of SYNC customers showed nearly 80 percent of respondents “definitely would” recommend it to a friend.

When will this recession end? There are lots of predictions out there, but as Warren Buffett advised recently, "The market will move higher, perhaps substantially so, well before either sentiment or the economy turns up. So if you wait for the robins, spring will be over."

With that in mind, we've concocted what we are calling the Forbes Chirp Index, an index that listens for the robins' chirps--meaning very early signs of shifting sentiment. Right now it's singing a possible economic rebound in August 2009.

Economists' preferred predictor, the Conference Board's index of 10 leading indicators, including building permits and unemployment, suggests that we're still in the midst of a January snowstorm. This measure of economic health fell in November to its lowest level since 2004.

Our index includes four indicators. The dollar volume of insider buying shows what managers honestly think about their own companies' prospects. Spreads on bond yields give a sense of what investors think of the chances of recovery. Road congestion at peak travel times (as measured by traffic tracker Inrix) tells us whether businesses are buying, workers are commuting and shoppers are shopping. Finally, mentions of the word "recession" in the news media illustrate the degree to which the downturn is on the public's mind.

Testing back over the last five years, we find that the Forbes Chirp Index typically leads economic activity by 10 months, which brings us to the possible August recovery. More road congestion and insider buying nudged the Chirp Index higher in November, overriding an increase in the number of mentions of the word "recession."

Of particular note: This fall has seen a profound increase in traffic congestion, even when adjusted for seasonal holiday shopping traffic. This points to greater economic activity beyond the one caused by the holiday spike in retail and shipping.

This boost in traffic comes a few months after a study, conducted by Inrix in June, found that high gas prices were causing an enormous drop in congestion--"the biggest drop in overall congestion since the oil crisis of the early '70s," says Scott Sedlik, the research firm's vice president of product marketing.

That drop lasted through the summer, but average peak-hour delays increased sixfold between August and November, meaning there were many more cars on the road later in the fall. Low gas prices were one reason for that, but only to a point. Drivers tend not to base the number of trips they take on the price of fuel once it falls below about $2.50 a gallon, Inrix found. The average price per gallon fell below that number in mid-October, according to the Energy Information Administration.

"You can call this period a bottom," says Rick Schuman, vice president of public sector at Inrix. "Any additional congestion that we pick up will be economic activity."

We'll be watching to see if this pickup continues into the next month.

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