Smart Car-to-Car Navigation Network in Japan

nomrniceguy writes "Japan now boasts some of the latest technology in zapping computerized data to millions of cars, delivering what may be the world's smartest way to drive. New navigation systems in Japan can quickly tell drivers which roads have traffic jams. A computerized FM radio broadcast system that collects and sends information from more than 28,000 infrared and radio-wave beacons installed along roads, they can also calculate how many seconds it would take to drive through virtually every block of the nation's cities and then find the fastest routes. In tests by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, a Japanese research group, cars connect to other cars wirelessly to get information about a traffic accident or an approaching ambulance."

Comments

Malicious Worms

[DominoTree]

Since they're all connected, couldn't a malicious worm cause lots of navigation issues?

wireless connection?

[deathazre]

cars connect to other cars wirelessly to get information about a traffic accident or an approaching ambulance.

this is one of the big reasons I have my CB on channel 19 all of the time. it's quite nice.

just have to deal with some of the truckers trying to be funny.

Japan

[mboverload]

Japan gets all the new stuff because of the culture, people. Young people's coolness is judged by the level of technology they have, not some stupid shoes. When a girl asks for something, it isn't the latest hat, it is the latest handheld media player.

People in Japan get the cool stuff because they BUY the cool stuff. However, in the US retailers do not like to take chances. We are conservative in our buying, looking for the greatest value, while the cool factor is what matters in Japan.

This means, sadly, we nerds get screwed.

Re:Japan

[McFadden]

As a Japanese resident (originally from the UK) I kinda disagree with the above comment.

Yes, Japanese fashion can sometimes be different from western tastes, but this doesn't necessarily make it "good" or "poor" - it's just different.

One thing I really like about Japan is the non-judgemental attitude that most Japanese seem to take to individuality in fashion. You can walk down the street in a pair of pyjamas and gumboots and people don't turn to each other and "tut tut" as if they the arbiter elegantiarum of what is the right or wrong thing to wear.

Conversely when I lived in London, I would often hear people saying, "oh look at her - what does she think she's wearing?" in a similar fashion to the writer of the parent comment.

Re:Small Problem...

[3-State Bit]

Did you know that if there's a ten-car jam in a tunnel, with clear road ahead, and clear road for a ways behind, then if we get the traffic that's coming up behind the jam to lose some time by making a detour, maintaining its speed and distance-between-cars, etc, while the ten cars start moving again, then the jam disappears -- but if we let the traffic that's coming up behind all reach the traffic jam while the hind car is still at a stand-still, and come to a stop behind it, all in turn, then there's still a jam? Only now instead of 10 cars it consists of however many cars were all cruising fine? (If it's on a highway, where these groups of cars aren't segmented by traffic lights, then this can be a huge number of cars. That's why you can have 45 minutes of stop-and-go traffic even though ahead of the whole jam is clear road and there's absolutely no reason that these hundreds of cars should be at a stand-still, except that an accident HAD occurred, miles and miles ahead of where the current traffic jam is, over an hour ago.)

What if

[Anonymous Coward]

Lets say this service can detect an ambulance
approacing or any for instance a cop car...
A getaway would be a pleasure either way.

This would be useful...

[putaro]

If Japan had any alternate routes to take that were viable. We drove from Tokyo down to Kakegawa yesterday to spend New Year's with my in-laws. 3 cm of snow fell which resulted in the Tomei Expressway (a large north-south toll road and major transportation link) being closed. The trip normally takes about 2-3 hours with plenty of time for stopping to let the 2 year old run around.

We wound up spending 12 hours in the car yesterday. All of the traffic diverted from the Tomei onto local roads combined with the snow and snow-clueless drivers made one massive traffic jam. We were averaging 2-3 km/hr for a large part of the day.

Here's what would rule.

[Renraku]

Imagine if there were an 'optimum speed' that the computer reccomended that everyone go to ensure smooth flow of traffic. It'd take a lot of processing power, but it could be done.

Now imagine this speed is broadcast out to cars and the speed could vary between lanes. So this pretty much eliminates unnecessary traffic jams and fixes the 'wave' effect of traffic.

cars tell other cars?

[countach]

If cars are communicating with each other, how long till someone hacks it and makes a traffic jam?