Whether you have a sat-nav device or not, TomTom has announced plans to launch an online route planner called, well, Route Planner. Using all of its gathered road information and navigation experience, TomTom wants to extend clever journey planning online for anyone to use. An open beta of the service is up and running and TomTom is looking for people to participate. It will be rolled out worldwide 'gradually'.The planner will boast live traffic information which means you can decide when to leave your home or office. It will calculate your routes based on the real average speeds measured on roads, which TomTom claims will "always provide you with the smartest route hour-by-hour, day-by-day, saving you time, money and fuel". In addition, the maps are refreshed everyday using TomTom's Map Share technology, which means new changes - from potholes to speed cameras - can be reported by TomTom users in order to refresh maps and recalculate routes. We are assuming that this service will be free. If not, it's back to the AA. The beta registration page is here. -Martin Lynch car sat-nav travel