There’s nothing worse than driving on the motorway and having to brake harshly due to some moron in front braking needlessly, which inevitably leads to congestion.

Well the head boffin’s at Honda have been observing this for some time and now claim to have pioneered a technology which aims to prevent traffic jams from occuring in the first place.

The Japanese car manufacturer claims that its new technology will detect the potential for a traffic jam and calculate whether the driving pattern of a vehicle in front is likely to create one.

Working closely with researchers from the University of Tokyo, Honda have conducted experimental tests of a system which utilizes the technology on a primary vehicle and with secondary vehicles following behind.

The test results indicate that their system helped increase the average speed of the primary vehicle by approximately 23 percent thus increasing fuel efficiency of the secondary vehicle behind by approximately 8 percent.

Instead of providing information to aid the driver in avoiding existing congestion based on current traffic flow, the system monitors the acceleration and deceleration patterns of your vehicle to determine whether the driver’s driving pattern is likely to create traffic congestion. The system will display appropriate information through an on-board terminal which should encourage smooth driving to help alleviate the intensity of acceleration and deceleration by trailing vehicles, thus helping to prevent or minimize congestion.

Obviously, the system is more effective if “all” vehicles communicate with each other, which is similar to the SARTRE ‘road train’ initiative being tested in Europe. Although, Honda’s system still requires the driver to make driving adjustments rather than a computer taking control of the vehicle.

Rightly so, i wouldn’t feel comfortable with any computerized system taking over control of my car.

Honda’s main goal is to bring this technology to the market, and public-road testing will commence in Italy and Indonesia in May and July of this year, with a main aim to verify the effectiveness of this new technology in minimizing vehicle congestion.