Road hazard alert system successfully piloted

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation and Here Technologies have announced the successful pilot of road hazard alert system that aims to improve driver safety.

Field tests of the technology, called Lane Hazard Warning, have been carried out in California, following a successful trial in Ibaraki Prefecture in Japan last winter.

Lane-level precision

According to the companies, the system enables vehicles to automatically warn others about upcoming road hazards with “lane-level precision”.

The companies now intend to make the technology available broadly to automakers for them to test in their vehicles.

Lane Hazard Warning enables an event detected by a vehicle’s sensors – such as a disabled or slow car, a slippery road, debris or a pothole – to be precisely localised to a specific lane and this information to be transmitted in real-time via the cloud to other vehicles approaching 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,” said Hiroshi Onishi, executive officer and group president of automotive equipment at Mitsubishi Electric.

"We are showing how your car can learn from the experiences of other cars on the road to make for a much safer driving experience”

“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.”

Lane Hazard Warning utilises a vehicle’s sensors together with HD Locator, Mitsubishi Electric’s “centimetre-level” positioning technology, and Here’s collaborative open location data platform.

As part of their broad collaboration, the companies are also evaluating the application of the technology in automated updates of maps for automated vehicles using the cloud as well as in a service that alerts cities and road maintenance authorities to road surface degradation.

“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,” said Jørgen Behrens, SVP and head of applications and services at Here Technologies.

“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.”

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