CURRENT STATUS OF VICS AND COPING WITH THE ADVANCED ROAD TRAFFIC INFORMATION COMMUNICATION SERVICE

The VICS (Vehicle Information and Communication System) Center was established in July 1995 as a joint venture between the public sector and the private sector to improve the functionality, to reduce cost by reducing traveling time, to improve safety by deter-mining accurate conditions, and to conserve the environment through smooth flow of traffic, thereby contributing to the realization of comfortable living and improvement of the national economy. These objectives are realized by systematically collecting, processing, and editing road traffic information as a digital information according to the driver's requirements, and developing and operating a road traffic information and communication system that transmits the information to in-vehicle units using communication and broadcasting media. Distribution of VICS information was started in April 1996 targeting metropolitan areas including Tokyo Metropolitan, Tomei and Meishin expressways. As of the end of June 2002, the VICS service has been provided to 39 Prefectures and expressways nationwide and the total number of vehicles with VICS in-vehicle unit in-stalled has reached about 4.5 million. Our target is to provide the VICS service to 47 Prefectures nationwide during FY2002.