Gridlock predictor

NTT has developed software for predicting road congestion that it claims is twice as effective as anything thus far. For any time from five minutes to four hours in the future it will give a rating of "jammed", "congested" or "clear" for any given road, with 60%-70% accuracy. It will also factor in accidents and changes in weather conditions.

As ever with this kind of thing, we think: "What if everyone's using this system? Wouldn't that mean hundreds of cars diving for the same "clear" roads to avoid the same "jammed" ones and rendering the predictions useless?"

In any case, NTT is aiming to get this into car navigation systems and route planning systems for transportation companies in the near future.

[Via the Nikkei Shimbun (Japanese)]