I'm not entirely sure just how much our editor Sebastian will like this general comparison, but when discussing transportation and energy issues both he and the somewhat controversial environmentalist George Monbiot like to say that despite all of the advances in alternative energy sources, there is simply no substitute for minimizing your vehicle/energy usage. In that vein, the United States Postal Service will be implementing a new digital map system to calculate more efficient delivery routes.

The system is called the Carrier Optimal Routing (COR) solution and was developed by RouteSmart Technologies in partnership with the USPS. In addition to calculating the most efficient routes available, it has the ability to make route adjustments whenever necessary. RouteSmart's optimization algorithms take advantage of NAVTEQ's digital map system. Although the USPS does not reveal a launch date, they say the system will be deployed nationwide.

[Source: NAVTEQ]