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.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Grab and Toyota launch data collaboration initiative for connected car services
    September 1, 2017
    Southeast Asian on-demand transportation and mobile payments platform Grab has launched a new data-focused pilot programme with Toyota Motor Corporation, Toyota Financial Services Corporation and Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance.The project aims to use data analysis to enable Grab to offer its driver partners across the region improved access to connected car services that will improve their experience on the Grab platform.
  • Sensor solutions cuts maintenance and emissions
    December 8, 2014
    The new raft of sensor technology can provide cost savings as well as additional functionality, as David Crawford discovers. Austria’s third-largest city, Linz, with a population of around 200,000, is recording substantial savings in its urban tram network within 18 months of introducing a new, high-technology approach to its public transport management. Tram, bus and trolleybus operator Linz Linien forms part of city utilities management company Linz AG, which has been carrying out a wide-ranging Smart Cit
  • Data handling important for autonomous vehicles
    December 8, 2016
    Data handling is becoming an ever-greater part of transportation and never more so than with autonomous vehicles, as Andrew Bardin Williams hears from some big names.
  • Sweating the asset
    May 22, 2012
    Technological progress has done many things for the good of mankind and, as is evident from this issue of ITS International, it has become fundamental for those needing to ‘sweat the asset’. You will not find that expression anywhere else in this issue, but you will discover a lot pointing to the crucial and expanding role for ITS in getting more out of existing infrastructure.IBM associate partner Michael Noblett puts this into context in our special smart cities feature starting on page 50. Noblett refers