Honda's congestion suggestion

The scenario is all too familiar: There you are, cruising at a steady speed on a reasonably busy freeway when, for some reason you imagine will surely become apparent, the traffic in front of you slows enough requiring you to at least back off the accelerator or, at worst, even apply some braking.

Surmising you will eventually find the cause of the interruption a bit further down the road, you regain your original speed as the surrounding traffic also speeds up. But the expected breakdown, or accident, fails to materialise and, chances are, the same thing may happen again. And again.

Experts know what this is. It is the complicated consequences of a relatively simple habit: the inability of some drivers to maintain a steady highway/freeway speed. Although this is innocuous enough at the point of infliction (if slightly annoying for a driver using cruise control in the overtaking lane when the car being overtaken gradually builds up speed), the effect on following drivers is a sort of ripple effect that is felt with more severity the further back you are in the traffic.

The drivers behind the offending car react with increasing urgency to the point that the situation, depending on the speed and closeness of traffic, can often become downright dangerous.

For all its familiarity, and its seemingly unsolvable nature, the problem is one the folks at Honda reckon they may have an answer for. As well as identifying the phenomenon, they have also begun looking at ways in which it may be averted.

Working in with the Research Centre for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Tokyo, Honda is in the throes of developing a system utilising a technology that specifically recognises the potential for traffic congestion resulting from random acceleration and deceleration of a maverick vehicle.

Honda says its system is designed to provide the offending driver with information that encourages smooth driving, alleviating the intensity of acceleration or deceleration in following vehicles.

The system can also be used, via “cloud” servers, to help following drivers stay in synchronisation with the traffic flow ahead through adaptive cruise control systems.

Honda says early test results have found implementation of the system could help increase average traffic speed by as much as 23 per cent, while fuel efficiency could be improved by eight per cent.

The company plans to start in-field testing of the technology in Italy and Indonesia in May and July this year.

While not many of us would like to see the road system become a steady, constant flow of traffic travelling at exactly the same speed, that would be preferable to constant braking and accelerating for no apparent reason. And anything that improves fuel economy, lowers exhaust emissions and makes driving on busy roads that little bit less frustrating can only be a good thing.

But it all sounds a little too easy. It is all very well to spell out the problem and suggest a solution, but if that solution seeks to alter often ingrained driver behaviour, it is difficult to see how it might work in the real world. And how will it fit with car-to-car communications systems being developed in Europe and the US to reduce the incidence of collisions?

The results of Honda’s on-road testing will make interesting reading.

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