Nissan to conduct two-month pilot test of Intelligent Transport System in Japan
Starting November 1, Nissan will run a two-month pilot program to test an intelligent transportation system in Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan. Like other ITS and vehicle communications systems, the primary focus is safety and improved traffic flow. The big side benefit of such systems is reduce fuel consumption and pollution. By proactively reducing accidents and congestion on city streets, vehicles can spend less time sitting idling or crawling along to get past obstructions.
For this test, Nissan is collaboratiing with cellular provider NTT DoCoMo. NTT will give specially-equipped cell phones to 500 pedestrians GPS enabled cell phones that will transmit location data to a central server. Nissan will provide drivers with 200 cars equipped with warning systems to alert the driver of a potential collision or accident based on the location data that is shared from the servers. Nissan will be monitoring the driver's responses to the warnings they receive as a way of evaluating the effectiveness of the system. The automaker will also be optimizing the information processing algorithms within the system. If such systems were in widespread use, the amount of available data could easily become overwhelming to a computer system and the processing needs to be streamlined.
[Source: Nissan]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
BoneHeadOtto 10:49PM (10/24/2008)
Thats the dumbest thing ever. Every person walking to teh bus stop will be seen as a potential collision. Anyone paying attention to this system is likely to hid a kid crossing the street that just happens to not own a cell phone.
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Chris M 1:39AM (10/25/2008)
I'd have to agree. GPS isn't precise enough and cannot tell exactly where the pedestrian is headed, it might think the pedestrian is in the road when he is a few feet over by the sidewalk (GPS accuracy is about 10 feet).
There are much better ways to prevent accidents.
Jon 1:12PM (10/28/2008)
If this was to work, that thing would NEVER stop warning the driving if you were driving in any city.
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