May 16 2019
HERE Technologies and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation have effectively piloted a system that allows vehicles to automatically alert others about imminent road hazards with lane-level accuracy.
Mitsubishi Electric and HERE develop road hazard alert system to improve driver safety (Image credit: HERE Technologies)
Towards March end, HERE Technologies and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation successfully concluded the field tests of the novel technology, known as Lane Hazard Warning, in the United States and in California. This followed a successful trial conducted in Ibaraki Prefecture in Japan the previous winter.
Currently, both the companies are planning to make the technology widely available to automakers, so that they can test it in their vehicles.
The Lane Hazard Warning technology allows an event perceived by the sensors of a vehicle, such as a slow or disabled car, a pothole, debris, or a slippery road, to be accurately localized to a particular lane and then allow this information to be conveyed in real time through the cloud to other vehicles coming toward the same area.
When something unusual happens on the road ahead drivers often have very little time to react and that can put them and their passengers at risk. Together with HERE Technologies, we've developed a new system designed to give drivers a few valuable extra seconds or minutes to prepare for a potential danger on the road ahead, such as by switching lanes or simply driving with greater caution. We're excited about the potential of this system in improving driver safety.
Hiroshi Onishi, Executive Officer and Group President, Automotive Equipment, Mitsubishi Electric
The Lane Hazard Warning technology uses a vehicle’s sensors along with HD Locator—a precise centimeter-level positioning technology from Mitsubishi Electric—and the HERE Open Location Platform, which is a collaborative big location data platform.
As part of their extensive collaboration, HERE Technologies and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation are also assessing the application of the new technology in automated updates of maps for automated vehicles utilizing the cloud and also in a service that warns authorities of cities and road maintenance infrastructure about the degradation of road surfaces.
HERE Technologies and Mitsubishi Electric are showing how your car can learn from the experiences of other cars on the road to make for a much safer driving experience. We believe fast, accurate and targeted hazard alerts will be a critical part of the data infrastructure required for automated driving and smart city services. We look forward to seeing this technology in the market.
Jørgen Behrens, SVP and Head of Applications and Services, HERE Technologies