Skip to main content

Mobile monitoring for Japan’s traffic jams

NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest mobile carrier, will use location data from its 61.5 million subscriber devices to build a platform that monitors traffic conditions across the country. DoCoMo said it will use its access to massive amounts of location data to build a cloud platform of traffic information on which services can be built. The company will target individual consumers with products like navigation and drive recording services, and corporate clients such as car insurance companies with traffic monitor
May 14, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
7342 NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest mobile carrier, will use location data from its 61.5 million subscriber devices to build a platform that monitors traffic conditions across the country.

DoCoMo said it will use its access to massive amounts of location data to build a cloud platform of traffic information on which services can be built. The company will target individual consumers with products like navigation and drive recording services, and corporate clients such as car insurance companies with traffic monitoring and analysis.

The company is to invest US$500 million to take a seven per cent share in struggling Japanese electronics manufacturer Pioneer as part of the effort. Pioneer is a major manufacturer of car navigation products, and already uses DoCoMo's networks for wireless services in its systems. The firms will aim to begin rolling out new services together from this year.

Pioneer recently announced a new car navigation system it will launch this summer that automatically snaps images at popular driving spots and shares them among drivers in real-time to provide information on road conditions.

Related Content

  • Norway continues to lead global electric vehicle market
    September 23, 2016
    Norway continues to lead the global market for electric vehicles, according to the most recent plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) index from IHS Automotive, part of business information provider IHS Markit. Plug-in electric vehicles are defined as either a pure Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) or a Plug-In Hybrid Vehicle (PHEV). Based on analysis of new vehicle registrations during the first quarter 2016, one out of every three vehicles registered in Norway during the quarter was a plug-in electric vehicle, r
  • ITS needs data highways
    November 18, 2014
    Transport and traffic data is on the increase but there must be an integrated data highway to derive the maximum ITS benefits, argues Deutsche Telekom. From public transport operators recording increasingly precise and comprehensive data on their vehicle’s position and driving behaviour to local authorities using RFID and video systems to control traffic on their streets and highways, the amount of traffic data is growing rapidly.
  • Connected citizens boosts Boston’s traffic management
    March 30, 2017
    Data-derived traffic management is starting to show benefits as David Crawford discovers. The city of Boston has been facing growing congestion problems in its Seaport regeneration district, with the rate of commercial and residential growth threatening to overtake the capacity of the road network to respond.
  • Sampo Hietanen’s mobility mission
    June 17, 2016
    For a decade Sampo Hietanen harboured a vision of an alternative form of mobility, now as CEO of MaaS Finland he is putting theory into practice. Sampo Hietanen has become the embodiment of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) – a concept he created 10 years ago while working for Finnish civil engineering giant Destia. “I had been working with the mobile sector on traffic information and started thinking what will happen when this becomes bigger,” he says.