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

  • Intelligent mobility leverages user-focused smartphone business model
    November 13, 2015
    New analysis by Frost & Sullivan claims the mobility network will draw inspiration from the user-interface oriented and service-driven, smartphone business model, to render car ownership an option for consumers. The subscription and user model of accessing vehicles will coexist alongside the traditional sales and ownership model, thereby enabling mobility-on-demand solutions for every commuting need. Even though the analysis, The Future of Intelligent Mobility and its Impact on Transportation, expects a
  • Home based real time travel information drives reduction in car use
    January 20, 2012
    David Crawford investigates a new approach to discouraging car use - the 'kitchen as travel centre'. ITS technology working together with UK planning legislation is driving an innovative 'kitchen as travel centre' approach to home design which is boosting public transport as an alternative to car use. The combination is already proving powerful enough to assuage environmentalist opposition to major urban developments. It is also being seen as a way of delivering wider social and community benefits inside an
  • Haas Alert and Monotch go Dutch
    April 15, 2024
    Haas will deliver in-car safety messages from Monotch’s TLEX-based national platform
  • Sampo Hietanen: “Why BP investment in MaaS Global is a good thing”
    November 26, 2019
    As a multinational oil giant, BP might not seem like the greenest choice for sustainable mobility provider and Whim owner MaaS Global. Sampo Hietanen explains his reasoning...