Update: The recommended retail price for the Nuvi 1300T (which is pre-bundled with a GTM 25 Traffic Receiver and also includes a one-year Live Traffic subscription) is R2 849, whilst the GMT25 Traffic Receiver by itself goes for a RRP of R949.

Following the path of TomTom and the launch of their live traffic updates, Garmin Distribution Africa is looking to guide users along uncongested roads by partnering with Altech Netstar Traffic to launch Garmin Live Traffic. 

This new feature will see motorists receiving live updates of nearby traffic congestion via Radio Data Service (RDS) and will offer alternative routes so that any potential traffic delays can be avoided. The level of congestion is indicated by colour, with a green route indicating no traffic delays, a yellow route signifying slow moving traffic and a red route marking a highly congested route.

When driving info about accidents and an estimated traffic-related delay are provided on-screen, with the option to reroute around the problem area.

The Garmin Live Traffic service is now available on Garmin’s nüvi 1300T, which is pre-bundled with a GTM 25 Traffic Receiver and also includes a one-year Live Traffic subscription. It will also become available for the new generation nüvi 1000 series in-car GPSs, zumo 220 & 660 series motorcycle GPSs as well as on certain older nüvi models running the latest software upgrade, but a Traffic subscription and a GTM Traffic Receiver will be needed for this services.

Live Traffic should be available before the end of this month and although the service will initially cover only Gauteng, Cape Town and Durban will follow suit soon thereafter. The recommended retail prices for the Traffic subscription as well as the GTM Traffic Receiver are not available yet. 

“Anonymous information collected every one to three minutes from thousands of vehicles fitted with tracking devices is processed by Altech Netstar Traffic and thereafter streamed via the Radio Data Service (RDS) to your Garmin traffic receiver,” explained dr. Chris Crozier, chief technology officer (CTO) of Garmin Distribution Africa. “The information is then displayed directly on the screen of your Garmin GPS device, with simple icons used to indicate traffic congestion, accidents or hazardous road conditions along your route.