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 São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro streets are now covered by Navteq a global provider of digital map, traffic and location data for in-vehicle, portable, wireless and the enterprise solutions. The new service was announced at Futurecom 2009.
As the largest cities in South America, home to approximately 10% of the Brazilian population of 192 million people, and key destinations for business and pleasure, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are as the company says "a natural extension of the Navteq Discover Cities coverage footprint."
For a business traveler, tourist or local resident, Discover Cities enables pedestrian experiences by adding detail to the Navteq Map. This combination of pedestrian geometry and pathways, Points of Interest (POIs) and transit data enables development of applications to help pedestrians go to their destinations via a variety of pedestrian specific routes, including those entirely on foot, or, if it's too far to walk with portions aboard the public transit system.
Navteq works with public transit operators to source information on schedules and the entrances and exits to transit stations. An attendee to the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Brazil held each October in São Paulo could receive instructions to take the G train (Line 9 Emerald) from their hotel on Berrini Avenue to the Interlagos Circuit that includes the train's timetables. Upon exiting the hotel lobby they would also be provided turn-by-turn pedestrian directions to the metro entrance.
"Reaching 100 cities demonstrates our commitment to rolling out Navteq Discover Cities across all major regions in the world," commented Cindy Paulauskas, vice president Americas map and content products for Navteq.
"Further, our research indicates providing the last steps of the journey after the end-user has departed from their vehicle has a major influence on mobile device purchasing decisions. Discover Cities enables our customers to provide consumers with quality relevant services for those devices."
A benefit of Navteq's technology and "feet on the street" is the inclusion of pedestrian "shortcuts" that can be used to save time. These shortcuts may be via unmarked paths through parks, plazas or even publicly accessible buildings - with time of day restrictions.
Without this additional data, applications may generate a route that involves only sidewalks when significantly shorter options are possible in reality.
For example, a pedestrian walking to an address on Avenida São Luis would be provided directions that illustrate a path through Praça da República to Avenida Ipiranga. This short-cut saves the traveler both time and energy.
Additionally the pedestrian map would display a 3D Landmark representation of the Italia Building adding to the pedestrians' confidence that they are heading in the right direction to their final destination.
Chicago-based Navteq was founded in 1985 and has approximately 4,400 employees located in 192 offices and in 43 countries.
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