G00D DESIGN AWARD 2011

Award Number :11G15018

Award-winning item :
An information service provided by a car navigation system [The information service of Honda's car navigation system called "Internavi"and it's effort to support mobility in the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of 2011.]

Company :
Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Producer :
Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Director :
Takeshi Imai, Executive General Manager, Internavi Telematics Division, Honda Motor Co.,Ltd.

Designer :
Kazuya Tamura Manager/Chief Engineer Internavi Telematics Division, Tadafumi Nogawa Staff Administrator Internavi Telematics Division, Aiko Sugawara Senior Staff Internavi Telematics Division

Description

To improve traffic flow in the regions affected by the 3.11 earthquake and tsunami disaster in eastern Japan, Honda released actual traffic and congestion data in the 3.11 disaster affected areas, using data collected from cars with Honda's car navigation.

Evaluation

Starting in 2003, Honda launched a specially-developed two-way navigation system "internavi" that collects data from customers' travels to compute the optimum route to a destination. When the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami occurred, that navigation data started to make itself useful for rescue efforts as soon as the following day, surprising many with this newfound application. Volunteer groups, rescue teams, and other parties bound for the affected areas used this publicly available data, helping them greatly. Honda worked to ensure the consistency of this data, releasing updates from the previous 24 hours every morning at 10AM, aiding the people en route. Following these events, other automobile manufacturers joined the effort and provided their own data. Who could have predicted that this two-way car navigation system would be employed during the disaster? Building on this experience, we hope the same level of assistance can be offered to people around the world in disaster areas. This entry receive the highest praise from judges who were impressed with the firm's years of efforts and contributions during the earthquake disaster.