Routing setup

Roles: Super Admin

In the Routing setup section in the management settings of a product, you can configure the following routing-related settings.

Routing Adapter For Fare Calculation

Defines the adapter used to calculate fares, that is, the price of a ride.

Routing Adapter For Journey Calculation

Determines the adapter used at the journey level, that is, for the route of the vehicle planning. This adapter pre-plans the journey, whereas the upcoming leg is routed using the turn-by-turn navigation adapter.

For journey calculation with a HERE routing adapter, ioki Platform sends the routing request without a departure-time hint. This also applies to vehicle plannings for prebooked rides.

Handles real-time navigation for the vehicle. This is calculated for the next upcoming leg in a journey.

Multi Routing Adapter For Pedestrian Station Walkup

Calculates pedestrian routes from the passenger’s location to the pickup station and from the drop-off station to their final destination when direct address-to-address matching is unavailable. Pedestrian routing is only activated if the pickup or drop-off location is more than ten meters from the requested point.

Routing Adapter For TaskList Recalculation

Recalculates existing vehicle plannings. The recalculation is, for example, triggered if a current vehicle position is off route.

For task-list recalculation with a HERE routing adapter, ioki Platform passes a time hint to HERE. If the recalculated part of the vehicle planning starts less than 15 minutes in the future, it sends the current time. Otherwise, it sends the scheduled time of that recalculated part.

Routing Adapter For Ride Direct Routing

Defines the adapter used for direct routing. The travel time of the direct route from origin to destination is used as the comparison value.

TableRouting Adapter Pedestrian Low Quality Pass

This adapter is used for the pedestrian walkways in the low-quality pass of the matching algorithm.

  • If using HERE, set this to OSRM (High Performance Routing) if the product is located in Germany. If the product operates internationally, set this to Fast Estimator.
  • If using NextBillion, always set this to Fast Estimator.

TableRouting Adapter Vehicle Low Quality Pass

This adapter is used for the vehicle routing in the low-quality pass of the matching algorithm.

TableRouting Adapter Vehicle High Quality Pass

This is used for the high-quality pass of the matching algorithm, when the considered vehicles are already chosen with the help of the low-quality pass.

TableRouting Adapter Vehicle For RideInquiry

Used to estimate vehicle travel times for ride inquiries—the availability and estimate checks made before a ride is booked. A separate routing profile can be selected for it.

Routing Adapter For Task List Analyzer

Used by the task-list analyzer, the reporting component that reconstructs what actually happened on completed vehicle plannings to derive the actual distances and durations behind the completed vehicle legs and completed vehicle plannings reports. A separate routing profile can be selected for it.

Set this to the same adapter as the Routing Adapter For Ride Direct Routing, so the analyzer’s planned figures use the same routing as the ride’s direct route. The fare-calculation routing adapter can also be appropriate, depending on whether the provider bills by shortest travel time or shortest distance. Use a normal routing adapter, not a shortest route one.

Route Snapping Adapter For Task List Analyzer

Also used by the task-list analyzer: it snaps the vehicle’s recorded positions onto the road network so the driven route can be reconstructed accurately from the raw location data. If the selected adapter returns no result, a fallback adapter is used. A separate routing profile can be selected for it.

Currently, HERE is the only reliable route-snapping adapter; on staging and demo, OSRM can be used for experimental or reconstruction purposes. Using a HERE-based adapter also keeps the snapping on the same map material as turn-by-turn navigation. Shortest route adapters can’t be used for route snapping—they appear in the dropdown but can’t be saved.

The following options are available for all routing adapters:

City Best Case Estimator This is a fast air-distance-based routing adapter designed to avoid underestimating timings. The ride durations it returns should be about 95% faster than the calculated result. It requires no backend, quotas, or maintenance and is very fast. Logging is omitted. It is the first choice for prefiltering (low-quality routing). It cannot be used to calculate navigational responses.

Fast Estimator This is the fastest routing adapter. It uses formulas that yield air-distance-like results (+/- 0.5% accuracy difference compared to the haversine formula, based on geometry). It requires no backend, quotas, or maintenance and is very fast. Logging is omitted. It is suitable for prefiltering (low-quality routing). It cannot be used to calculate navigational responses.

Harvesine Estimator This estimator routing adapter works by calculating air distances. It returns coarse, low-quality routing results, but is quick and requires no backend, quotas, or maintenance because it is integrated directly. It can mimic navigational responses.

OSRM (High Performance Routing) The OSRM5 adapter uses KBTI (Kompressor-Boost-Technologie-Interface) to connect to the high-performance OpenStreetMap routing server. For this adapter, it is also possible to set a specific profile.

HERE shortest route This is the same routing adapter as HERE routing, but it aims for the shortest route rather than the shortest travel time.

HERE (with live traffic information) This HERE routing adapter connects to the HERE Routing API and takes live traffic information into account.

HERE over OSRM5 This is a non-scalable routing adapter that orchestrates HERE over OSRM. A basic route is prepared by condensing an OSRM5 result. Along that skeleton line, the fine-grained final routing is then done via HERE. Note that the table adapter internally dispatches to OSRM5. In practice, this resembles the final route without live traffic information. The final results at the end of the matching pipeline still use proper HERE-based routing and correct any misjudgements caused by the evolutionary approach.

NextBillion (with live traffic information) This NextBillion routing adapter connects to the NextBillion Routing API and takes live traffic information into account.

NextBillion shortest route This is the same routing adapter as NextBillion routing, but it aims for the shortest route rather than the shortest travel time.

Time coefficient for vehicle routing

This scales the resulting vehicle routing. This is useful if the HERE or NextBillion routing times are known to be too optimistic or pessimistic. The resulting routing times are multiplied by this coefficient. The higher the value, the slower the vehicle is assumed to be. For example, a coefficient of 110% means the vehicle needs 110% of the time specified by HERE or NextBillion, that is, it takes 10% longer.

Time coefficient for pedestrian routing

This scales the resulting pedestrian routing time.

Avoid U-turns

For both HERE and NextBillion routing adapters, this specifies if routing should avoid U-turns.

OSRM High Performance Routing Profiles

For the OSRM (High Performance Routing) adapter, ioki Platform offers the option to select a routing profile. A routing profile contains information about the routed object and is used to adapt the routing accordingly. For example, routing with a pedestrian profile could include walkways in parks. Routing between the same start and destination for a motorized vehicle should result in a different path.

Manual selection of this profile is available when OSRM (High Performance Routing) is selected as the routing adapter in the product settings. The form must then be saved and reloaded. After that, a new dropdown for the routing profile is shown.

The current options are:

  • Car
  • Foot
  • Autonomous
  • Autonomous Staging

Note that for all other routing adapters, the profiles are automatically set in ioki Platform as Car or Foot. Manual selection for the OSRM profile exists so that the autonomous team can introduce self-implemented profiles. Because autonomous vehicles have additional restrictions and require different specifications, this cannot be covered by the existing profiles alone.

For this purpose the profiles Autonomous and Autonomous Staging are used. The other profiles, Car and Foot are offered by OpenStreetMap.

Possibilities and restrictions of routing customization

Currently, three routing adapters are implemented for turn-by-turn navigation of vehicles: HERE, NextBillion, and OSRM. OSRM is used for autonomous services, while non-autonomous DRT products can use two adapters that offer slightly different options and workflows for customization. These are summarized below.

Routing customization with HERE - “ioki Routing 1”

  • The product feature restricted areas can be used, and operators can manage restricted areas via self-service. A product can have up to 250 restricted areas in total. Up to 20 can use the Polygon area type. Note that the HERE implementation only provides the option to avoid areas. This means that if no other route is available, the routing still crosses the restricted area.
  • No line exact routing: It is not possible to account for which side of the road a vehicle is on.
  • It is not possible to create new links or open existing blocked links for routing. In this context, ‘link’ refers to a ‘street.’

Routing customization with NextBillion - “ioki Routing 2”

  • The product feature restricted areas can be used, but it requires manual work from the backend team.
  • It is possible to restrict areas, links, and turns on the map, as well as modify the average speed on links via the NextBillion MapCreator tool. This is not a self-service feature and must be done manually by the backend team. Therefore, a recommended maximum of 20 changes should be made. In this context, ‘link’ can be roughly translated to ‘street’.
  • If there are existing blocked links on the maps, they can be unblocked. For example, it is possible to open streets for routing that are designated as public transport only, which would otherwise be omitted. However, it is not possible to add new links. Unblocking is also not a self-service feature for the provider and must be manually handled by the backend team in the NextBillion Road Editor.
  • NextBillion does not offer line exact routing.