Japan to use 700MHz band for inter-vehicle communications system

While the future of the 700MHz band is still up in the air 'round these parts, it seems that Japan has already decided what it'll do with it as it makes its own transition away from analog TV broadcasts. According to Tech-On, Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has deemed it suitable to use the 700MHz band (or 10MHz between 715M-725MHz, specifically) for an "inter-vehicle communications system" that it hopes will reduce accidents by allowing vehicles to communicate with each other (not exactly a new concept). This latest decision apparently comes after the MIC also considered using the 5.8GHz band for the same task, but found it to be more easily blocked by obstacles. As with over here, however, the 700MHz band isn't available for re-purposing in Japan just yet, with it only slated to be freed up on July 25th, 2012. Presumably, this all fits in with that worldwide mobile broadband standard for the 700MHz band, although we'll have to wait and see how all the details shake out.

[Image courtesy of toddemslie]

[JesV @ Mar 26th 2008 5:02PM]

Random comment!

[paul34 @ Dec 6th 2007 11:17AM]

While we banter about such a system on blogs, leave it to Japan to already officially accept that it will happen and put aside a frequency band on it.

:sigh: Japan really does exist in the future.

[Superevil @ Dec 6th 2007 11:25AM]

Can I get a 700MHz free Engadget?

[monkfishbandana @ Dec 6th 2007 1:18PM]

Yeah, tell me about it. I've even started to pronounce it "ma-hoo-za", just to entertain myself.








I'm serious.

[wickedpheonix @ Dec 6th 2007 11:27AM]

Kinda stupid. This sorta thing could be achieved with an ad-hoc WiFi system as was designed in earlier implementations = complete waste of the 700MHz band in Japan.

Point being, with WiFi, you already have cheap chips available on existing technology. All you have to do is to write some software that takes in the GPS location of the WiFi units near it (i.e. the other cars on the road), match it up to a map, and see not only whether you're traveling too close to the next car, but also if there's congested traffic ahead (think daisy-chaining 100 WiFi-enabled cars in a row). Plus, you put WiFi in a car, and the hackers wwill mod all these things to let you get Internet from unsecured hotspots and other things like that. Can't do that with 700MHz, and what you can do with it you can do at least the same if not better with WiFi, which is here today.

[SuperPrime @ Dec 6th 2007 11:42AM]

You can still use Wi-Fi just only use it for intervehicle comunication

[wickedpheonix @ Dec 6th 2007 2:39PM]

@superprime

that's my point: you don't need anything other than inter-car communication. Communicating with a central traffic server for example is completely redundant, unnecessary, and more expensive.

[PEZ @ Dec 6th 2007 1:02PM]

I had that idea years ago. It was called HiIM. (highway IM) Lousy name, but it got my point accross. I think I will sue Japan.

[Chris H. @ Dec 6th 2007 11:50AM]

Sounds like Cory Doctorow's book, Eastern Standard Tribe (http://craphound.com/est/).

[PeteC @ Dec 6th 2007 12:49PM]

So inter-car communication huh?

You can talk to the car infront? Doesn't that sound like a brilliant way to increase road rage incidents where currently people shout at people inside their cars and the other person is none the wiser, now they'll get to hear what the person thinks about that accident they almost just caused, agree a good place to stop and settle it with some fisticuffs? Brilliant!

[Stephen @ Dec 7th 2007 1:30PM]

It enables the cars themselves to communicate, not the idiots inside them.

[wickedpheonix @ Dec 6th 2007 2:41PM]

that's not it: inter-vehicle communication is for the cars to "talk" amongst themselves, not for their drivers to talk to each other. Point being the car in front of you could tell your car to back off cause you're unintentionally going too fast, and your car would tell you the driver via the heads-up display to slow down or would do it automatically.

[Randavance @ Dec 6th 2007 3:53PM]

America already tried this back in the 80s. A company marketed basically the same radios truck and school bus drivers use so people could communicate on the road. It's a great idea in theory, but in reality it ended up being peop;e cursing each other off or yelling "penis" over the waves and pissing off the truck drivers who would sometimes be on the same frequency.

I live in New Jersey. We're angry enough to each other on the road.

[Jake @ Dec 6th 2007 8:42PM]

I don't think that's the kind of "intervehicle communication" that they have in mind. The Japanese system will most likely feature communications from car-to-car. Literally. Your car will communicate with the cars around it, without your intervention.

On another note: isn't this more or less the system featured in "I, Robot"? It starts with car-to-car, and then they implement comprehensive AI to direct them all--and then we're at war with the robots.

[Randavance @ Dec 6th 2007 9:19PM]

My bad, thanks for pointing that out, it makes a little more sense then what I thought they ment. I guess all we have to worry about now is a positronic brain holding Japan hostage.

[MasterCKO @ Dec 6th 2007 9:07PM]

A lot of people seem to be misunderstanding the intent of this tech. This is for car-to-car communication, not driver-to-driver. The car would poll its area, see if there are cars in the way, if there is traffic coming up, a car about to collide with it, etc. All automatically, all without your intervention, all going to helping the car's computer decide if it should slow you down or not. This is not a way for people to chat with the people in other cars nearby.

[TestSubject86 @ Dec 6th 2007 11:49PM]

With inter-vehicle communication, you could prevent a lot of accidents. The simplest way is just brake awareness. If a vehicle ahead of you breaks, your vehicle could know about it. Not only that, but it could know the breaking distance of the car ahead and all the breaking distances of the cars behind you.

I've seen video of cars using inter-vehicle communications in combination with some kind of proximity sensor to achieve a kinda car train that benefited from shared wind resistance. In say a 5 car train, all the cars would accelerate and brake at the same time.