TU-TESL

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According to foreign media reports, multinational weather news Inc. (headquartered in Tokyo, Japan) and Toyota Motor Corporation, headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi County, Japan) has conducted a validation test in Tokyo, Osaka and Aichi county since November 1, 2019. The test will determine the road and surrounding conditions with the operation status of windshield wipers and weather data. The test is part of a joint research project to improve the accuracy of weather observation and forecast, and to improve the safety of drivers by using weather data from Meteorological News Company and vehicle data from Toyota netcar. In this verification test, when the Toyota netcar is driving in the designated area, the running state of the wiper will become a visual map, and be compared with the actual weather data. Because the working state of the wipers usually corresponds to whether the rain falls or not, it is possible to detect the precipitation that the standard rain cloud radar cannot detect using the wiper data. In this verification test, the relationship between wiper data and weather data will be analyzed in detail, and in addition to detecting precipitation, other phenomena that may affect wiper operation will be detected. In June last year, with the launch of crown and corolla Sport models, Toyota began to fully launch the online car. In the future, all Toyota passenger cars launched in Japan will be equipped with on-board DCM (data communication module). In addition to using observation networks at about 13000 locations across Japan, weather news companies use 180000 weather reports provided by users every day to provide highly accurate weather forecasts. Through the joint research project, the two companies will provide "useful in case of emergency" weather data and online vehicle data to improve driver safety. Validation testing will begin on November 1, aiming to use wiper data and weather data to accurately determine the actual situation. It is said that the accident rate in rainy days is four times that in sunny days, so whether the precipitation has a great impact on the safe driving of vehicles. However, the rain cloud radar, which is usually used to detect and predict rain areas, has one disadvantage, that is, it is unable to detect rain clouds or light rain spots (such as small raindrops formed during drizzle) in the lower troposphere (at an altitude of 2km or below). In this case, it is difficult to accurately determine the rain area. In the validation test started on November 1, as a part of the joint research project of Toyota and Meteorological News Company, the running state of the windscreen wipers of the Toyota netcar in the designated area will become a visual map to compare with the actual weather data. In the past, in the Guandong area, the rainfall generated by the low cloud rain area was not displayed on the rain cloud radar, but reported by users of the "weather news" application. The user report received matches the area where the vehicle is using the wipers, indicating that the wipers data can detect rainwater that the rain cloud radar cannot detect. In addition, the partner will analyze the relationship between wiper data and weather data in detail. In addition to accurately detecting the area with rain, the partner plans to estimate the intensity of precipitation based on the intensity of wiper operation, and consider using wiper data for weather prediction. Using the data of wipers to accurately determine the road and surrounding conditions, such as precipitation and the actual intensity of precipitation, the situation that cannot be detected by radar, etc., the partners will also send an alarm to the driver according to such situation, so as to improve the safety of the driver. In recent years, the increasingly serious weather phenomenon and the damage caused by it have become a social problem. People have an unprecedented demand for local real-time weather information and how to deal with it. In order to meet such needs, it is necessary to provide more detailed and accurate weather information in real time. However, the current weather observation tools have limitations in installation location and measurement interval. At the same time, the development of Internet of things (IOT) technology has led to a new era in which all kinds of devices have communication functions. The same is true for vehicles, which can collect driving data and status data of connected vehicles (equipped with Internet of things technology), and detect the phenomenon that affects the driving situation and behavior of vehicles. In this context, Toyota and Meteorological News Company launched a project to improve the accuracy of weather observation and forecast and the safety of drivers by using the weather data of Meteorological News Company and the data of Toyota online vehicle. Different from the traditional way of using sensors to detect weather phenomena directly, combining this method with big data such as vehicle data and weather data for analysis can open up a new way to detect the road and its surrounding conditions. As part of the project, both companies have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm that can predict where the road is flooded, and conducted validation tests in October this year.