Nissan To Test Car to Car Communications For Safer Driving

YOKOHAMA, Japan, Sept 14, 2006; Reuters reported that Nissan Motor Co. said on Friday it would test a new car-to-road communication system over the next few years aimed at making Japanese roads safer and less congested.

The system sends signals between vehicles and roadside structures such as traffic lights and electricity poles to gauge vehicles' relative speed, distance and acceleration, sending a warning signal if a car is in danger of running a red light or colliding with another vehicle in low-visibility conditions.

Japan's second-biggest auto maker will seek 2,000 drivers in Kanagawa prefecture, southwest of Tokyo, for the test, which will run from next month to the end of March 2008.

Rivals Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. are working on similar technology and are scheduled to start their own tests in other parts of Japan soon.

The efforts are part of the Japanese government's aim of setting up by 2010 a nationwide intelligent transportation system to reduce the number of traffic accidents.

Nissan's new system, with infrastructure devices developed by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. (6752.T: Quote, NEWS, Research), will also warn drivers through a visual prompt and a voice recording if the car is exceeding the speed limit in school zones.

Separately, Nissan will test a system that collects data from mobile phone users of its CarWings navigation service and of mobile operator NTT DoCoMo Inc. (9437.T: Quote, NEWS, Research) to assemble information on road congestion and provide tips on finding the fastest route to a destination.

Nissan said the technology would help ease traffic congestion, which the Japanese government says is responsible for an economic loss of 12 trillion yen ($102 billion) a year.