In message , at 13:13:16 on
Fri, 19 Dec 2008, Recliner remarked:
I'm waiting for the day that we have a live online satellite feed so
you can check the state of traffic on various roads before you set
out.

But I won't hold my breath for it anytime soon.

Or ever -- geostationary satellites are much too high to focus on
individual roads. Low orbit satellites don't spend long over any
particular point on earth, and mostly pass over uninhabited areas with
no roads. The only likely way for this to happen would be using either
tethered balloons or drones.

I think you might see "satellite" traffic reports one day. Not by
vehicles reporting their position to satellites [1], or live photos from
on high, but vehicles knowing where they are and sending periodic
reports by some form of terrestrial mobile data. The Japanese have had a
trail of weather forecasting by getting cars to report whether or not
their windscreen wipers have been turned on.

[1] There are still journalists who think GPS works by transmitting data
from the ground to the satellite (and even one on BBC yesterday who
think it's called GPRS!)
--
Roland Perry