Intelligent Transport Systems - Overview and Japanese Systems

ITS R&D activities have been intensively carried out since 1980s in three worldwide regions: Asia-Pacific, North America and Europe. In Japan, although CACS, a navigation system, started already in early 1970s, it seems too early to be accepted in public. Then, from the middle of 1980s, several ITS projects such as RACS, AMTICS and SSVS were initiated separately by the corresponding ministries. However, since 1994 when VERTIS, an industry –academia organisation to promote Japanese ITS activities with the help of five related ministries, was formed, ITS R&D as well as deployment have been more cooperative among the ministries. VICS (Vehicle Information and Communication System) is one of the cooperative outcomes. 1975 198