By Editor in Chief
on Thu Mar 27 2025
The Road Traffic Information and Communication Systems Center (VICS Center) will begin full-scale operation of its “VICS Probe Utilization Service” on April 1.
The demonstration experiment, which began in April 2020, will be completed on March 31, and the system will be put into full operation nationwide. Conventional VICS collected information from “roadside detectors” to determine traffic congestion and other conditions, which was then reflected in the creation of routes for car navigation systems. In the demonstration experiment, VICS probes, which are generated based on “information from vehicles on the road” such as position, speed, and time of passing, collected by each automobile manufacturer, will be used in combination to provide traffic information on roads that cannot be obtained from sensors alone.
This combination will make it possible to provide traffic congestion information for approximately 200,000 km of almost all roads in Japan (highways, national highways, and prefectural roads), and is expected to improve the accuracy of car navigation system route guidance. This information can be provided to users of VICS-compatible car navigation systems without having to purchase a new one or change the settings.
© Source travel watch