Honda Develops In-Car Traffic Mitigation Tool

HondaPorsche BoxsterGermany, 1996 > 20163 series
38 versions
116 photos
2 videos
has created a piece of technology that it says will prevent traffic jams. The system monitors the acceleration and deceleration patterns of the cars in front of you thanks to a camera mounted on the roof of the car. In testing in Japan, Honda found that it increased average speed by 23% and increased fuel economy by 8%. Keep in mind, these gains were not just for the vehicle equipped with the traffic mitigation system; all of the cars in that vehicle's vicinity received the improvements.

The system monitors not just driving of other cars but the equipped car itself. If it deems the driver's driving pattern as likely to cause a traffic jam, it informs the driver and tells the how to drive more smoothly.

The system was created with help from the Research Centre for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Tokyo. Honda intends on testing this technology on public roads in Italy and Indonesia in May and July, respectively of this year. 

Honda says that in theory this technology could be synched to the cloud and know about accidents or construction ahead. In this way, the adaptive cruise control system could automatically slow the vehicle well before any traffic congestion to prevent the traffic jam from becoming worse. Honda found that if the system was linked to the cloud the average speed was increased by a further 16% and fuel economy increased by 5% compared to the system not linked to the cloud.