TOKYO (October 10, 2008)-- Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. announced it will pilot its slip-hazard alert and new road-cam service, to be available to all CARWINGS customers*1, that will contribute to prevent accidents under slippery road and cold weather conditions. Testing of the road-cam service will begin November, whilst the slip-hazard alert will be available by December.
The slip-hazard alert combines data from its ITS*2 (Intelligent Transport System) and ABS (Anti-lock Braking System) to warn drivers of slippery road conditions. A newly developed road-cam service can enhance the effectiveness of the alert service by offering drivers a visual image of the mountain passes.
(1) Slip-hazard Alert
A map informs the driver of the location of slippery points relative to the vehicle's position, and a voice alert is activated when it approaches possible slippery area. This feature helps to warn drivers in advance so they can take action to slow down safely.
- Slippery area information
- The latest slippery area
Map of slippery points relative to vehicle's position based on data received via its CARWINGS navigation system, probe information*3 and activation of ABS (Anti-lock Braking System) indicating slippery conditions. - Slippery points based on statistical data.
- The latest slippery area
- Cumulative data on winter accident points
- Location of reported skid incidents from previous years.
Nissan started testing of the slip-hazard alert in November 2007 with a limited 100 test-vehicles around Sapporo city in Hokkaido, Japan. These initial tests demonstrate that the alert is effective in helping drivers become more watchful of road conditions and to drive more cautiously at lower speeds. It also showed that drivers continued to consciously drive safely even in areas where no skid incidents were recorded. The Sapporo tests were part of the ITS project*4 piloted in Kanagawa Prefecture since October 2006.
By expanding the slip-hazard alert to all CARWINGS owners at no charge from December, Nissan engineers hope to further test the service with the intention to commercialize the service in the future.
(2) Real-time road-cam service
The road-cam service, providing real-time road images of main mountain passes in Hokkaido, which tend to be severe in winter weather conditions, will begin trials in November. Images are fed from the Civil Engineering Research Institute for Cold Region (CERI)*5 via the CARWINGS "information channels" to the navigation monitor*6, and updated every 15 minutes.
Nissan, in cooperation with Cold-Region Road Engineering Research Group of CERI, has been promoting research to improve winter-driving safety utilizing slippery area information.
- *1 Requires factory fit CARWINGS HDD navigation system for slip-hazard alert service.
- *2 Intelligent Transport Systems: The Intelligent Transport System is an advanced information system that connects people, vehicles and traffic infrastructure that can contribute to help improve road safety.
- *3 Vehicle location, speed and other information via cellular communications.
- *4 ITS project is a collaboration between Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., NTT DoCoMo, Inc., Panasonic Corporation and Xanavi Informatics Corporation.
- *5 "Northern Road Navi （http://northern-road.jp/navi/）" operated by CERI provides road image information on 12 main mountain passes in Hokkaido.
- *6 Data is edited and processed by Nissan's telematics agent based on Road Web Markup Language (RWML) formulated by CERI.RWML is XML, a next-generation markup language, which CERI formulated with its joint research group to allows road information to be easily disseminated.
Telematics agent is the world's first function of its sort where drivers can obtain Internet information for more driving pleasure. It transforms information from the Internet into a user-friendly format that can be viewed on a vehicle navigation monitor.
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