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Vehicle flows through intersections on major roads have become far smoother in recent years in Japan. This is because nowadays traffic control centers control traffic lights based on information on the traffic situation obtained via sensors installed on the roads. Sumitomo Electric System Solutions, a subsidiary of Sumitomo Electric, develops these traffic control systems. Hiroshi Nakao of Sumitomo Electric System Solutions explains: “For more than 50 years since the Koshu Kaido field trial, we have been working to alleviate traffic congestion. Of the 210,000 intersections nationwide, 70,000 are connected to traffic control centers equipped with traffic safety-enhancing control systems.”
Sumitomo Electric is working with the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) on greater use of probe data collected from individual vehicles, such as the positions and speeds. The aim is to forecast traffic conditions through AI-based analysis of big data, including not only real-time probe data but also historical data. Plans call for the rollout of a system in Japan from 2023 onward. Excited by the prospect, project leader Masafumi Kobayashi of Sumitomo Electric says, “As well as much more accurate information, other advantages include control of many more intersections with far fewer sensors.”
Sophisticated Japanese intelligent transport systems (ITS) are attracting growing interest overseas. Having received an order for equipment and software for a traffic light system project in Bangkok, the Thai capital, in December 2020, Sumitomo Electric will start field-testing traffic light control using probe data in the city in February 2022. “Alleviating traffic congestion is a pressing issue in Southeast Asia. And because traffic control systems using probe data are so cost effective, it’s easier for countries in the region to deploy them,” says Sumitomo Electric’s Takehiko Kato who leads the Thai project.
People in Japan and overseas are benefiting from greater traffic safety thanks to ITS from Sumitomo Electric.
Reprinted from SUMITOMO QUARTERLY NO.166
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