Honda world first can detect the potential for traffic congestion

Honda Motor Company has announced the successful development of what it claims is the world’s first technology to detect the potential for traffic congestion and determine whether the driving pattern of the vehicle is likely to create traffic jams. The company developed this technology while recognising that the acceleration and deceleration behaviour of one vehicle influences the traffic pattern of trailing vehicles and can trigger the traffic congestion.
April 27, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
1683 Honda Motor Company has announced the successful development of what it claims is the world’s first technology to detect the potential for traffic congestion and determine whether the driving pattern of the vehicle is likely to create traffic jams. The company developed this technology while recognising that the acceleration and deceleration behaviour of one vehicle influences the traffic pattern of trailing vehicles and can trigger the traffic congestion.

In conjunction with the Research Centre for Advanced Science and Technology at the 5315 University of Tokyo, Honda conducted experimental testing of a system using the technology to detect the potential for traffic congestion. The test results demonstrated that the system helped increase the average speed by approximately 23 per cent and improved fuel efficiency by approximately eight per cent of trailing vehicles.

With the goal to bring this technology to market, Honda will begin the first public-road testing of the technology in Italy and Indonesia in May and July of this year, respectively, to verify the effectiveness of the technology in minimising vehicle congestion.  

Rather than providing information to help the driver avoid existing congestion based on current traffic information, the system monitors the acceleration and deceleration patterns of the vehicle to determine whether the driver’s driving pattern is likely to create traffic congestion. Based on this determination, the system provides the driver with appropriate information, including a colour-coded display through the on-board terminal, to encourage smooth driving which will help alleviate the intensity of acceleration and deceleration by trailing vehicles, thereby helping to prevent or minimise the occurrence of vehicle congestion.

Moreover, the positive effect on minimising congestion and fuel efficiency improvement can be further increased by connecting the on-board terminals to cloud servers to make the driver aware of and in sync with the driving patterns of vehicles ahead by activating the ACC (adaptive cruise control) system at the right time to maintain a constant distance between vehicles at the most appropriate interval.
Location Based Systems

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Green requirements of traffic video systems
    February 2, 2012
    Traficon's Head of Product and Application Management Robin Collaert offers up a discussion of the likely future green requirements of traffic video systems. At the most basic levels, ITS has the potential to significantly reduce the amounts of time which vehicles spend waiting at intersections, and less time spent waiting means less in the way of vehicular emissions. All of that will hardly come as news to most laypeople, let alone transport professionals. However, the reality is that even today too many r
    Read More
  • Transit bus collision avoidance pilot launched in Washington State
    March 18, 2016
    Insurance group Munich Re, in collaboration with the Washington State Transit Insurance Pool (WSTIP), has launched a pilot program top equip transit buses with Mobileye Shield+ collision avoidance technology, installed by Rosco Vision Systems. For the pilot, 38 WSTIP transit buses have been equipped with the technology which claims to enable drivers to avoid and mitigate imminent collisions, protecting the most vulnerable and difficult to observe road users, cyclists, pedestrians and motorcyclists. Je
    Read More
  • Temporary journey time solution aids smart motorway works
    August 12, 2014
    Temporary intelligent transport system (ITS) solutions provider, Mobile Visual Information Systems (MVIS), is to supply its first temporary journey time solution for long-term constant use on a smart motorway project. In partnership with traffic management specialist Vysionics, MVIS developed a temporary journey time solution for continuous operation throughout the two year installation of the smart motorway scheme between junctions 28 and 31 of the M1. The temporary system provides real time journey inf
    Read More
  • Countering falling fuel tax revenue with mileage fees
    April 20, 2016
    Eric G. O’Rear and Wallace E. Tyner look at the benefits of mileage charges and how these might be implemented. Since the early 1900s, taxes on petrol (gasoline) and diesel fuels have been used to finance the construction and maintenance of roadway infrastructure and, in some countries other government spending too. Now, a combination of improved fuel economy, the advent of hybrid and alternative fuelled vehicles and a reluctance in some countries (especially the US) to increase fuel taxes has led to a d
    Read More

Highlighted Content