Japan To Use Navigation System To Warn Drivers To Avoid Accidents

Illustration of traffic in Japan. (Wikimedia Commons/Puchi Masashi)

JAKARTA - Japan's Ministry of Transport will introduce a new system to address traffic violations on toll roads, with a zero target of deaths and injuries by 2029, amid rising incidents involving elderly drivers.

The proposed system will use surveillance cameras to detect traffic violations, warning nearby drivers and vehicles through their car or smartphone navigation systems.

Tenders for companies to develop the system will launch in fiscal year 2024, with the aim of early implementation at high-incident locations following trials.

According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transportation and Tourism, surveillance cameras on toll roads are mainly used for road safety and monitoring such as strikes and falling objects, as quoted by Kyodo News, October 10.

With more than 15,000 cameras installed across the country, covering most toll roads, the ministry has considered that detecting traffic violations using artificial intelligence image processing is feasible.

Once detected, the proposed system will alert drivers with voice alerts via their car navigation system or through a smartphone map application commonly used by motorists.

In an effort to prevent direct collisions, vehicles around which are traveling in the right direction will also receive warnings about drivers who are in the wrong directions around.

Toll road operators will oversee public demand for project developers. Trials will identify the effectiveness and problems of the system, with the location of the wrong-driving incident being repeatedly a priority in installation.

It is known that about 200 incidents of drivers driving in the wrong direction on toll roads have been recorded annually since data collection began in 2011, with cases peaking at 259 in 2015.

Last year, there were 224 incidents, eight of which resulted in injuries or deaths. About 80 percent, or 185 cases, were prevented before the accident occurred.

Elderly drivers aged 65 years or over accounted for 61.5 percent of accidents as a result of counter-driving in 2023, up from an average of 50.4 percent between 2011 and 2022. This trend of increase is likely to continue amid the aging population.

The steps taken by the ministry and toll road operators to date include installing warning signs, such as "No entry," and road markings at exits and intersection points.

In recent years, they have also displayed warnings on electronic signs on the side of the road when a vehicle headed in the wrong direction was detected by a sensor or radar. However, this warning appears to have failed to get to the driver in some cases.