Elmar Brockfeld, Alexander Sohr and Peter Wagner from the German Aerospace Center's Institute of Transport Systems look at the prospects for floating vehicle data systems. Although Floating Vehicle Data (FVD) or probe vehicle fleets have been around for about a decade, the idea behind them is of course much older: from probe vehicles that flow with the traffic it should be possible to get a precise, fast and spatially near-complete picture of the prevailing traffic flow conditions in an area under surveilla