Traffic Ecosystem
Activities and Technology Development to Adapt to an Ever-Changing Traffic Environment
In a traffic environment that is constantly changing due to traffic congestion and accidents, landslides and icy roads, Honda believes that preventing accidents requires a dynamic understanding of the aspects of the traffic ecosystem, consisting of infrastructure and road users, and the smooth coordination between these entities is vital.
To this end, Honda will actively participate in research and development, cooperation with national and local governments, and co-create with partner companies.
History
In 1998, Honda began offering Internavi, a car navigation system equipped with a communication function that supported safe driving by utilizing driving data collected from vehicles. Later, Honda analyzed the emergency braking data obtained from the Internavi system and developed the SAFETY MAP service on the Honda website to provide information on areas of high accident frequency in advance, and later developed the Honda Drive Data Service, which displayed danger areas on a map in real timehelping to solve social issues such as disaster prevention and traffic accident prevention. In 2020, Honda began applying Honda CONNECT, an exclusive in-vehicle communication module, to its new cars, providing services that made the driving experience more secure and comfortable. These efforts are also being deployed outside of Japan in accordance with regional circumstances.
Main Technologies and Activities
Toward 2030, transportation infrastructure will be further developed as the proliferation and evolution of communication terminals such as smart phones and IoT-enabled equipment and mobility progresses. Along with the development of infrastructure, Honda will continue its research and development, and activities optimized for traffic safety.
Honda CONNECT - New Generation Connected Technology
Honda analyzes a variety of data received by Honda from around the world and utilizes it to evolve services for customers and improve product quality, thereby providing high value to customers in terms of both software and hardware.
We are also developing "Honda CONNECT Insurance," which uses points of constant communication with vehicles to improve safety awareness through driving scores and advice.
Honda Drive Data Service - Making Automobile Data More Useful for Everyone
Honda Drive Data Service utilizes big data to understand the movement of vehicles. As of February 2020, the number of service members in Japan has reached 4.4 million vehicles, with daily data collection exceeding 50 million km, covering the whole of Japan. Data acquired from vehicles equipped with Internavi helps reduce the risk of accidents by identifying danger areas that could lead to accidents.
Toward the Future
In order to achieve its goal of zero traffic collision fatalities involving Honda motorcycles and automobiles worldwide by 2050, Honda believes that it is vital to ensure the safety of all people, including vulnerable road users. To this end, Honda is developing Safe and Sound Network Technology, a further evolution of the connected technology it has been developing for some time, which links all road users, including people and mobility, via communications to predict risks before an accident occurs and support avoidance.
Safe and Sound Network Technology
As a part of the efforts to develop Safe and Sound Network Technology, Honda plans to participate from 2023 in a road-vehicle collaboration field test to be conducted by Central Nippon Expressway Company Limited on a section of the New Tomei Expressway under construction in cooperation with Softbank Corporation, to verify use cases for risk prediction and information notification by utilizing data from connected vehicles and traffic infrastructure. Through these field tests, Honda will identify issues that need to be addressed to implement the technology in society, and will use this information to improve the technology.
In addition, in order to realize the social implementation of flexible and scalable new DX infrastructure and applications based on 5G networks using traffic signals, which is necessary for the construction of Safe and Sound Network Technology, Honda has been participating since 2022 as an executive member in the Consortium for DX Promotion by Utilizing Traffic Management Infrastructure, a collaboration between industry, academia and government.
Honda has begun system development in the early 2020s, and aims to complete and verify its effectiveness, and standardize the system in the late 2020s for social implementation of the "Safe and sound network" in 2030 and beyond.
