Realization of Navigation that Concider “Easy-to- Drive” -- Introduction of Joint Public - Private Sector Research

"Easy-to-Drive Road Maps", developed in Japan, rank roads depending on "easiness to drive." Currently, a study on applying the maps to car navigation systems and web systems of route guidance is underway, with the hope of improving driving comfort, reducing traffic accidents, and so on. So far the system has built an environment for continuous data maintenance and management and conducted driving experiments on roads to evaluate social effects of utilizing the Easy-to-Drive Road Maps. This paper outlines the joint public-private research and summarizes the results of evaluation of social effects based on the driving experiments on roads.