Honda is working on a system that can sense patterns of the traffic ahead and detect the potential for traffic congestion, kinda like the congestion detection system routers use in computer networks. Honda’s system can determine whether the driving pattern of the vehicle is likely to create traffic jams. What’s the use of this information, you might be asking.

Well, according to Honda the acceleration and deceleration behavior of one vehicle influences the traffic pattern of trailing vehicles and can trigger the traffic congestion. This system can manage that by adjusting those behavior, thus easing up the congestion, and as a result improve speed and fuel consumption.

A test they did in Tokyo demonstrated that the system helped increase the average speed by approximately 23% and improved fuel efficiency by approximately 8% of trailing vehicles. To make sure of the system’s effectiveness, Honda will begin the first public-road testing of the technology in Italy and Indonesia in May and July of this year.

This is actually rather interesting. Instead of helping the driver to avoid congested areas, this technology tries to prevent congestion from happening. It will provide the driver with appropriate information, including a color-coded display through the on-board terminal, to encourage smooth driving which will help alleviate the intensity of acceleration and deceleration by trailing vehicles, thereby helping to prevent or minimize the occurrence of vehicle congestion.