Assessment of IVHS Research Efforts in Japan and Future Directions

In the past twenty years, research on intelligent vehicle/highway systems (IVHS) in Japan has seen a tremendous progress. The first advanced IVHS research was conducted between 1973 and 1979 under the name of CACS (Comprehensive Automobile Control System). Since then, technologies on vehicle/road communication and information processing technologies have been advanced by both the electronic and automobile industries. From these efforts two different systems, RACS (Road Automobile Communication System) and AMTICS (Advanced Mobile Traffic Information and Communication System), have emerged as Japan's major IVHS programs. Both RACS and AMTICS have gone through initial demonstration stages. AMTICS's demonstration project was completed in June 1988 and RACS's final comprehensive field test was completed in November 1989. They are now in the practical application stage and are expected to be merged into a single system under a tentative name of VICS (Vehicle Information Communication System).