Nissan gets mobile for safety

Nissan is developing a road safety system using mobile phone technology to help reduce accidents involving pedestrians. The company says it will research pedestrian-related communication involving the transmitting of pedestrian position data to vehicles via the Global Positioning System (GPS).

The 'advanced Intelligent Transportation System (ITS)' uses the 3G cellular communications system available in Japan, which uses a GPS function to provide location information of the mobile phone.

The system uses the location data to determine the corresponding positions between the pedestrian and the vehicle. If the ITS detects pedestrians ahead of the vehicle, it will send a warning alert to the driver. Various driver alerts, such as visual warnings or audible alarms, are also under study.

The recent release of 3G in Japan has enabled Nissan to further research potential for its ITS project, which began last year. The program is aimed at efforts to help reduce traffic accidents and congestion utilising real-time driving-data collected from the vehicles.

Nissan says the data can also be used to ease traffic congestion, which will contribute to CO2 reduction, a major objective in the Nissan Green Program 2010.

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