To help solving the problem of traffic jam, Honda Motor is developing a technology that is claimed to be the world’s first one to detect the potential for traffic congestion. It is also designed to determine whether the driving pattern of the vehicle is likely to create traffic jams.

Photo: a scheme demonstrating the Honda technology, from autoblog.com

Honda has collaborated with the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Tokyo to test a system utilizing the technology and the result of the testing showed that the system helped increase the average speed by approximately 23% and improved fuel efficiency by approximately 8% of trailing vehicles.

Now, Honda is rolling out the first public-road testing of the technology in Italy and in July the test will be conducted on the roads of Indonesia.

So, how does it work? The ‘clever’ system monitors the acceleration and deceleration patterns of the vehicle to determine whether the driver’s driving pattern is likely to create traffic congestion. Then, the system provides the driver with appropriate information to help them drive smoothly trying to prevent or minimize the occurrence of traffic jam. In addition, the system connects the on-board terminals to cloud servers for the driver to in sync with the driving patterns of vehicles at the right time and to maintain a constant distance between vehicles at the most appropriate interval.

In future, Honda promises to “work toward the establishment of a congestion-free mobility society all around the world”.

Currently, the automaker, together with Intel and PG&E, is also developing a communication between the electric cars and power grid.