Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) and Toyota city have launched an initiative under which they will perform verification testing for road maintenance inspections in Japan, for the first time ever, using vehicle data obtained from connected cars.
The testing will enable assessment of whether the degree of road deterioration index values computed from the car’s behavior data and actual road conditions are consistent, and validate these findings on more typical regional roads.
Toyota also aims to further advance its technology toward supporting administrative services that implement road maintenance and inspection work in Toyota more accurately and appropriately.
In addition to providing road surface information collected through routine inspections and road patrols, Toyota city will carry out discussions on the feasibility of applying this technology to road maintenance inspection work.
TMC will extract vehicle data (traffic information probe data and vehicle behavior data) obtained by connected cars and perform big data analysis with its proprietary mobility service platform (MSPF). While providing road deterioration information, Toyota will also analyze the data’s correlation to actual conditions.
Toyota currently offers a passable route map that provides real-time information on safe routes during disasters in Japan using data analytics based on telematics-equipped vehicles.
With the forthcoming verification testing, the OEM aims to continue developing technology that analyzes vehicle behavior information, to succeed in digitizing road surface deterioration and toward continuing development in practical uses of this technology.
Moving forward, Toyota will continue developing town and road technology using connected cars, to actively support the work of local governments.
