This represents the first and largest such experiment conducted of its kind, involving 500 pedestrians and 200 drivers, and in collaboration with NTT DoCoMo Inc, the largest mobile network operator in Japan.
Participants will use a special cellular phone, compatible to the Nissan navigation system on-board test vehicles, and simply go about their regular daily routines.
How the system works?
The driver can be alerted of a pedestrian hidden around the corner, by voice message and screen display via the navigation system. This is possible as the information server detects data transmitted via GPS to the cellular phone carried by the pedestrian and sends it to the vehicle navigation system, which then triggers the alert. The system assists the driver to drive more carefully, which can help to reduce pedestrian-vehicle collisions.
The pilot aims to achieve two objectives.
1) Verification of the effectiveness of the system to support safer driving
Nissan will monitor the changes in driver-behavior, such as the response time and deceleration after the alert, for quantitative analysis.
2) Optimization of data-processing logic
Nissan will test the data-processing logic, based on a sophisticated software program, which can determine a pedestrian on the street, by identifying the data sent from the cellular phone carried by the pedestrian and calculating the speed of the moving-target.