1. A method for predicting future travel times of a target vehicle traveling on a route from a starting point to a destination, comprising the steps of: acquiring real-time probe data by probe vehicles traveling on a set of one or more alternative links from the starting point to the destination; estimating a current travel time for each alternative link using the real-time probe data; and predicting the future travel time of the target vehicle traveling on the route based on the current travel times for the set of one or more alternative links using a set of regression functions, wherein the steps are performed in a processor.