History

This is the early history of Valhalla.

Routing is a wily beast and many valiant efforts have been made to slay it, with limited success. However, we have brought a mighty new Mjölnir-like weapon to bear on this beast: Open Source!

After much intense battle development we are proud to take the wraps off of Valhalla. Valhalla is open source routing software using open source data (primarily Open Street Map), with a very liberal license. This should allow for transparency in development, encourage contribution and community input, and foster use in other projects. The name is inspired by key features of the routing engine: the core route engine is called THOR (Tiled, Hierarchical Open Routing), generation of trip information for the path is called ODIN (Open Directions and Improved Narrative) and the service component is called TYR (Take Your Route). Valhalla seemed like a fitting organization name -- previous efforts may have died but we all get to fight on in the great hall that is Open Source.

Valhalla developers know routing. We have worked together as a team for over a decade and have complementary skills that allow efficient software development. Our experience includes both commercial and OSM routing. We are well versed in scaling routing services to handle millions of requests per day. Performance and scalability is important, but our primary focus will be creating high quality routes, guidance, and directions.