How a 1997 Japanese telematics service replaced DVD map updates with live traffic from VICS beacons, cellphone links and cars sharing their own speed data.
Internavi is Honda's Japanese telematics service that delivers maps and traffic data over a driver's cellphone. It began in August 1997, and its floating car system uses participating cars to share speed and position for live road conditions.
Internavi is a vehicle telematics service that Honda offers to drivers in Japan. It supplies mobile connectivity for on-demand traffic information and internet-delivered maps, shown on screens inside selected Honda vehicles. In the United States the same idea is marketed as HondaLink, sometimes MyLink. The service began in August 1997 and grew steadily from there.
What is Internavi?
Internavi replaces the need to update in-car navigation systems that rely on CD or DVD maps. Instead, the maps are sent over the internet through the driver's cellphone, using a data plan attached to the phone. The service is available without buying a Honda equipped with the technology, because the Internavi LINC app can run on compatible phones from Apple's App Store and Android Market.
One feature is the ability to overlay weather on the in-car map in 3D. Route guidance combines that with VICS traffic information, so that a large weather disturbance such as a snowstorm or typhoon can be shown approaching, and drivers can take another route before they reach it.
Internavi turned every participating car into a sensor, so the traffic map gets better as more drivers join the network.
How did Internavi grow?
The service began in August 1997. It was first offered on the 1998 Honda Accord and on the Honda Torneo, which was sold only in Japan, from July 1998. A revision in October 2002 added traffic information for subscribers to the Internavi Premium Club, and the service became optional on most Honda vehicles sold in Japan. The government's VICS system was integrated from September 2003.
Membership rose steadily. Subscribers passed 100,000 in June 2004, 200,000 in March 2005 and 300,000 in November 2005. The count reached 400,000 in July 2006 and passed 500,000 in March 2007, when the total was said to exceed five million subscribers. By December 2009 the membership had topped one million.
| Date | Milestone |
|---|---|
| August 1997 | Service starts |
| July 1998 | Offered on the Honda Accord and Torneo |
| October 2002 | Traffic information for Premium Club members |
| September 2003 | VICS integrated |
| June 2004 | 100,000 members |
| March 2005 | 200,000 members |
| November 2005 | 300,000 members |
| July 2006 | 400,000 members |
| March 2007 | 500,000 members |
| December 2009 | One million members |
How does on-demand VICS traffic work?
The service depends on the driver's cellphone and the data plan linked to the account. Once connected, one of its services is route calculation to a chosen destination. The navigation unit connects automatically to the Internavi Information Center, which plans the quickest route using all known traffic and local transport issues from the VICS centre. Its figures come from several sources and are renewed every five minutes.
As travel begins, updated conditions are relayed to the car in real time. If the cellphone link is lost, information is refreshed once the connection returns. Under normal navigation, the FM-multiplex VICS broadcast prompts the system when conditions such as congestion arise, and the planned course changes to reflect the new information, including inter-city motorway links.
Cars receive data from two sources. One is the Beacon Light transmitters on main urban roads, which are picked up through an externally mounted antenna. The other is the cellphone paired with the vehicle. The combination is intended to provide highly accurate information in real time.
What is the floating car system?
The floating car system turns the cars themselves into sensors. As a vehicle travels, whether on a planned route or simply driving, it records its GPS position and speed to its hard disk. It then uploads that data periodically to the Internavi Center Information Server, which passes it to other users as road conditions.
Traffic speeds appear in three colours, red, orange and blue, to show congestion, and the colours are overlaid on the official VICS conditions. A driver can opt out of sending their own position and speed. If they do, they receive only VICS information, and they cannot contribute their own data to others.
Because the data comes from individual lanes, the system can show conditions for a specific lane and direction rather than the road as a whole. An incident in one lane can therefore be identified precisely. Stored information from many cars also allows congestion to be predicted.
If the cellphone link is disrupted, the vehicle keeps its records on the hard disk, and everything is transmitted once reception returns. Vehicles with DVD-based maps do not receive updated traffic conditions in the same way. The company reported 100 million km of cumulative floating car data by November 2005, and 200,000 km by January 2007.
What other services does Internavi offer?
A parking selection function lets Internavi vehicles share available spaces, both on the street and in car parks, public or private. The space is described by the size of the car leaving it, so drivers looking for a spot can be reasonably confident it will fit. Weather overlays were added in October 2004, and information by lane was introduced the same month.
The system can also save music from a CD onto the hard disk, with track details supplied by Gracenote. Maps on the hard disk update automatically for 24 months after registration, or until three DVD map updates have been received before the first government-mandated vehicle inspection. After that, map updates become a supplementary service. Cars sent to a Honda dealer for repair have their hard disk maps fully upgraded to the latest data, and stored music is protected from accidental deletion.
Members get a personal home page, linked to the car navigation, that shows drive information, configuration and maintenance reminders. Drivers can plan destinations online and transfer them to the car. In June 2005 a feature called Departure Time Traveller was added, which takes a departure city, a destination and a desired arrival time, and then recommends a departure time and route, with the toll charges displayed.
How does QQ Calls work?
QQ Calls provides a hands-free phone service for assistance after an accident or a road emergency. It includes 24-hour roadside assistance and towing. Joining costs 2,000 yen to enrol, and membership of the Japan Automobile Federation, JAF, adds an annual 4,000 yen. Owners of the Honda Legend and Elysion with the V6 engine receive three years of the service free.
A live operator can arrange extra road help, and can organise alternative transport and lodging expenses when it becomes impossible to keep driving. Honda's hybrids, the Insight, CR-Z and Fit Hybrid, added an Eco-Index that records mileage and lets drivers compare their habits with other hybrid owners.
How are members signed up and which cars can take it?
When a Honda with a compatible navigation system is bought, the owner can have the system activated at any Japanese Honda dealership. The owner completes an application to register the vehicle and personal details, and a PIN and activation instructions are then sent. Older cars that were not sold with Internavi can be retrofitted at a Honda dealer or at Honda Access accessory retailers.
In Japan the parts chain Autobacs sold an in-dash unit called Gathers, built by Honda and compatible with Internavi, which could be fitted to almost any car. Earlier DVD or hard disk navigation may be compatible too, and the DVD navigation in the Japanese-market Honda MDX can be upgraded. Pioneer Carrozzeria products were also found to be compatible.
At launch the service worked with NTT DoCoMo's mova and au phones on CDMA 1X WIN technology. Later, 3G phones could be paired by Bluetooth, and WILLCOM offered flat-rate services for third-generation navigation connected to a computer at home.
What happened to Internavi after 2007?
The service kept adding features. Its data plans moved to flat-rate communications from February 2007. In March 2008 the Time Traveller service was opened to non-members, and in April 2008 the company worked with police prefectures to publish information on crime-prone locations, including vehicle theft. Pioneer was granted access to the floating car data in August 2008, and a road ice forecast was added in December 2008.
The network also looked beyond the car. The company worked on a disaster information system with Zenrin Datacom, and in July 2009 Departure Time Traveller information became available on mobile phones. In October 2009 traffic information was made available on phones to non-members as well. The CR-Z launched in February 2010 with a free communications link, and in March 2011 the free link was extended to the Fit Shuttle.
In November 2011 the service's earthquake notification work supported transport in affected areas, and its actual traffic information map won a Good Design Award. The Good Design Grand Prize had last gone to the Honda Civic in 1984, in the three-door hatchback category.
