Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT) conducted a public road test, at it’s winter test track in Hokkaido Prefecture, for the “ASV (Advanced Safety Vehicle) -3,” a project led by MLIT to reduce accidents by using a vehicle-to-vehicle communication system.

Since April 2001, Japanese auto makers have developed systems for this project. At the test track, 14 auto makers actually drove test vehicles equipped with the system to show the system details and operation.



Although a MLIT official commented that, “There are no standards or specifications yet,” all systems utilized the 5.8-GHz frequency band. All the test vehicles deployed the same antenna and communication device, although each maker developed a unique way to alert drivers for dangers such as potential collisions.



Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. has adopted a scheme in which the positions of other nearby cars are displayed as icons the car navigation system on the monitor. When a danger of collision is imminent, an alert icon will appear in the upper right corner of the monitor. Daihatsu Motor Co., Ltd. also presented a method using the monitor of the car navigation system to display a warning.



Meanwhile, Mitsubishi Motors Corp. exhibited a system using a dedicated monitor mounted on the car navigation system. An arrow mark will appear on this dedicated monitor when other cars are approaching. “We have adopted this system to reduce eye movement between the front of the vehicle and the monitor,” said a Mitsubishi spokesperson.



More here.