Initiatives towards a Connected Mobility Society

(Background)

In 2022, there were approximately 300,000 traffic accidents, 40% of which were accidents resulting from being unable to see ahead clearly [1], drawing attention to the need to avoid accidents that are difficult to prevent solely by using alarms and "Autonomous Emergency Braking System" with automotive sensors. In 2035, connected cars are expected to double in number compared to 2023, which also calls for enhanced security to protect against systems that are becoming ever more complex.

(Concept)

Utilizing digital twins generated from KDDI's human travel data, Toyota's vehicle data, and open data such as the number of past traffic accidents, the parties will contribute to safe and secure community-building and traffic safety. Also, the solution will connect operational information for connected services such as those for vehicles, networks, and servers across different domains to understand every car's situation in order to identify the range of effects from connected services provided by communicative vehicles, thereby contributing to the realization of safe, secure connected services.

(Background)

To combat climate change, efforts to reduce CO2 emissions are moving forward around the world.
As the number of connected cars increases, there is a need to reduce their power use as well as to utilize renewable energy to power connected cars' data processing.

(Concept)

We will process large amounts of data accumulated from the spread of connected cars at network edges close to connected cars. We will do so in immersed containers to reduce power use.
To maximize renewable energy utilization, we will transfer necessary data to center servers by prioritizing servers using renewable energy.
Through these efforts, we will contribute to reducing CO2 emissions.

(Background)

At present, mobility experiences are being called for not just while one is travelling but while one is inside the car before and after travelling; such experiences should seamlessly connect the inside of the car with one's living space, featuring optimized communication that serves the customer's intended usage.

(Concept)

KDDI and Toyota will combine their services and state-of-the-art technologies to realize a new mobility experience, including by enriching the time spent inside the car and making travel more fun. To support these experiences, the parties will aim to provide optimal communication that serves customer needs, which change by place and time, as customers travel; this will be done using not only cellular communication but also other means such as satellite and Wi-Fi communication.

1. Overview

This system scores risky places and visualizes them by AI analysis of KDDI's location information collected in 10-m increments at intervals as short as several minutes, user attribute information (gender and age) from personal identification data from smartphone signups [2], Toyota's probe data and automotive network data (CAN data) [3], and open data such as road features and the number of traffic accidents. The system visualizes risk levels in grids consisting of approximately 50-m cells and allows users to see the risk factors such as the ratio of elderly pedestrians and elderly cyclists and the proportion of suddenly braking cars in target locations, thus enabling the system to be utilized for various traffic safety work, including data-based devising of effective traffic measures (such as needs for installing new road signs).

2. Data used

• KDDI data

  : Number of pedestrians, number of bicycles, age, etc.

• Toyota data

  : Number of vehicles, average car speeds, number of sudden decelerations, number of momentary stops, ratio of vehicles turning left and right, etc.

• Open data

  : Road properties, number of traffic accidents, etc.

1. Overview

"Vehicle to X" is a solution that enables interactions and connections between cars and various things. As the first step towards implementation, KDDI and Toyota are developing a technology that utilizes the location information of cars and two-wheeled vehicles [4] to alert drivers in advance when multiple vehicles simultaneously approach a risky intersection. The system is designed to contribute to traffic safety at intersections with poor visibility by means of smartphone beeps, vibrations, and alert screens in order to prevent accidents that are difficult to prevent with alerts from automotive sensors and "Autonomous Emergency Braking System" alone.
Going forward, the parties will continue this research and development as well as service development for future implementation in society.

2. Details

To alert drivers to brake while they still have plenty of room ahead, we have achieved low latency by making the search process lightweight and speeding up the logic that detects simultaneously approaching vehicles. Combined with risky place scoring, this system alerts drivers only at risky intersections in order to avoid becoming bothersome and changes the frequency of location information updates according to the distance from risky intersections in order to conserve smartphone battery life.
From February 1 to 28, 2023, we conducted a verification test on a public road in Itabashi, Tokyo, confirming that drivers' speed of entry into the intersection was reduced by 10.1 km/h on average.