25.03.2013/2012/XNUMX - A smartphone app that helps drivers adapt their speed to other vehicles can help at least delay the formation of traffic jams. This has been shown by tests carried out by Honda http://world.honda.com in Jakarta, Indonesia. The automaker has been testing its system there on a busy toll road since September XNUMX. Accordingly, it took up to six minutes longer with the help of the app before a traffic jam actually formed. But that not only saves time - the journey is also around a fifth more fuel-efficient.
Go with the flow
Honda's approach is based on the fact that real traffic jams only form when the flow of traffic is seriously disrupted, for example by sudden braking. As long as cars drive smoothly at a speed that is adapted to the flow of traffic around them, there will be no major congestion. This is where the now tested app comes in. On the one hand, it observes the flow of traffic and also measures how the user's car brakes and accelerates in order to determine whether the driving behavior is currently within the green range.
This is the case when the user's maneuvers match the general traffic situation, which the app simply shows with a green screen. If, on the other hand, the driver brakes too jerkily and thus potentially encourages congestion, the display changes to blue and thus warns the vehicle driver to better adapt his speed and driving behavior to the cars in his vicinity. This should not only prevent the traffic from stalling too quickly, but ultimately also contribute to safety - because optimal driving behavior also includes a reasonable distance from the vehicle in front, which prevents rear-end collisions.
Proven benefit
The months of testing in Jakarta were carried out on a road where over 200 cars run in three minutes at peak times. So Honda was able to prove that the approach really brings something. Even a smartphone app that only pays attention to driving behavior could delay the occurrence of traffic congestion by an average of three minutes. A system in which smartphones in different vehicles are connected to a cloud service could even delay traffic jams by an average of four minutes.
The average speed of the cars has increased, according to Honda, and the pace has become up to 70 percent more steady. This was also reflected in fuel consumption - with the cloud system, fuel efficiency increased by 22 percent. Now Honda wants to develop its system further. Among other things, more precise traffic data should be collected. It is also planned that vibration and audio feedback will also enable use with vehicles such as motorcycles, where visual feedback via screen color is not practical.
(mh)
Source: paste