Traffic congestion is caused by the disorderly flow of the traffic. Therefore, to minimize congestion, the driver of each vehicle needs to adjust driving behavior to the surrounding vehicles. Honda developed a smartphone app which changes the colors of the smartphone display to help the user to check at a glance whether his/her driving is aligned with surrounding vehicles.

Honda Motor Co., Ltd. conducted public-road testing of its new traffic congestion minimization technology ( earlier post ) in Indonesia and verified the effectiveness of the technology in delaying the development of congestion and in improving fuel efficiency by more than 20%. The public-road testing was conducted from September 2012 through February 2013 on a toll road between Ulujami and Pondok Ranji in Jakarta.





Display of the app: When the driving pattern is Normal, the color is green. Click to enlarge. Display of the app: When the driving pattern is likely to cause congestion, the color changes from green to blue Click to enlarge.

This app was used in the public-road testing conducted in Indonesia. This smartphone app monitors the pattern of acceleration and deceleration and determines if the pattern is likely to create traffic congestion, and if so, provides support to aligning driving to the surrounding vehicles.

Two different types of systems were tested:

Stand-alone system: using a stand-alone smartphone on one vehicle, the system determines if the driving pattern leads to traffic congestion.

Interactive system: multiple smartphones in multiple vehicles are connected to a cloud server to provide synchronized assistance to the driver taking into consideration the behavior of multiple vehicles and information about other vehicles up ahead.

Results Stand-alone Interactive Explanation Delay in development of congestion Average 3 min

Maximum 6 min Average 4 min

Maximum 6 min Introduction of this system will make the flow of traffic more smooth and increase the average vehicle speed, therefore will delay the development of traffic congestion. Changes in average speed More moderate by 60% More moderate by 70% Drastic changes in vehicle speed will cause congestion. The moderate changes in speed also will increase the safety level. Fuel efficiency improvement 20% 22%

In addition to minimizing traffic congestion, this app is expected to improve the safety and fuel efficiency of the user’s vehicle as well as several hundred vehicles operating on the same roads.

Honda will continue to develop and to enhance of the technology, including adding a function that employs an on-board device to provide the users with information about possible congested areas determined based on the actual amount of traffic and driving patterns.

To realize the widespread use of this technology for motorcycles and other types of vehicles, Honda also will develop a function that supports riding/driving aligned through the use of audio and vibration alerts.