In this blog post, we’ll explore the concept, core technologies, and expected benefits of the smart highway—the cutting-edge road of the near future.

Smart Highway Overview

These days, the word “smart” is attached to many things around us. Just as devices combined with computers—from smartphones to smart TVs and smart home appliances—have transformed our lives, efforts have continued in the transportation sector to create a convenient and safe mobility environment by linking roads, vehicles, and communications through Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). Navigation systems, highway toll-free systems, automated enforcement systems, and bus information systems are already deeply embedded in our daily lives, and news of developments in futuristic modes of transportation, such as drones and autonomous vehicles, continues to emerge. However, the full commercialization of autonomous vehicles requires not only vehicle technology but also supporting roads, infrastructure, and institutional reforms, making widespread adoption in the near future difficult.
In contrast, “smart highways” are gaining attention as a more realistic form of advanced transportation for the near future. A smart highway refers to a road that integrates technologies to significantly enhance safety and convenience on expressways; it is of great importance as the foundation for supporting future functions such as platooning (convoy driving) for autonomous vehicles. Pilot operations have already been successfully conducted for over a year on some sections, and with most core technologies developed, commercialization is just around the corner.

Road and Vehicle-Based Technologies

First, light-concentrating guidance sign technology provides more than twice the visibility of conventional signs in environments where light is scattered, such as at night or in fog. The goal is to improve the luminance of the signs themselves and the light-concentrating method to reduce the time drivers spend processing information, thereby enhancing driving safety.
Second, the active fog dissipation device automatically measures the distance to the fog and uses dry air to disperse it. Installing this device in areas prone to fog can prevent accidents caused by poor visibility. It is designed to operate effectively only at necessary points by combining distance measurement with an air injection system.
Third, the lane departure prevention system utilizes DGPS (Differential GPS), a high-performance positioning technology, to precisely determine the vehicle’s location. When a lane departure is detected, it alerts the driver and can even be linked to a function that communicates with the vehicle to automatically steer it back into the lane. Since it operates on a GPS basis, it can perform relatively stably even in adverse weather conditions compared to existing in-vehicle devices.

Advanced IT and Communication Technologies

WAVE, a dedicated road communication standard, is central to the communication infrastructure of smart highways. WAVE communication is optimized for high-speed driving environments, designed to transmit data with a latency of less than 100 milliseconds even for vehicles traveling at speeds exceeding 200 km/h. It also excels in one-to-many and many-to-many communication, enabling diverse applications such as information exchange between vehicles, integration with road infrastructure, and autonomous platooning. However, full-scale commercialization can only be expected once the deployment of communication equipment is accompanied by improvements in the resolution of location data.
The Automatic Emergency Detection System, also known as “Smart Eye,” combines high-performance cameras, auto-tracking CCTV, and radar to detect emergencies—such as accidents, falling objects, wrong-way driving, and pedestrians crossing—within 30 seconds with an accuracy of approximately 30 cm. When a situation is detected, the camera automatically zooms in on the scene to help personnel respond immediately. Currently, on highways, unexpected situations are often handled by operators manually monitoring CCTV feeds or relying on reports from the public; therefore, the automatic detection system is highly effective in quickly addressing these situations—which are major causes of traffic congestion—and reducing secondary accidents.
Road condition detection radar is a device that detects road conditions—such as water film, ice, or fallen objects—in real time and transmits hazard information to vehicles. When operating in conjunction with Smart Eye, the radar can identify hazards and provide early warnings even in conditions of low visibility or poor visibility, thereby enhancing driving safety.
The multi-lane non-stop tolling system is an extension of the current Hi-Pass concept, utilizing equipment widely installed across multiple lanes to collect tolls without requiring vehicles to slow down. This system can significantly reduce the bottlenecks and congestion caused by traditional toll plazas, contributing to the efficient use of road capacity.

Effects and Outlook

The Smart Highway technologies discussed above create a more comfortable and safer driving environment on highways and can contribute to alleviating traffic congestion to a certain extent. Most importantly, they improve safety by reducing traffic accidents. Research and test operations aimed at preventing and responding to accidents through vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication are underway in Japan, the United States, and Europe, and it is expected that commercialization will significantly reduce the number of fatalities and injuries.
Based on a comprehensive analysis of test results and future prospects, the introduction of smart highways is expected to reduce the number of fatalities by tens of percent, with a noticeable decrease in the number of casualties as well. If commercialized on highways and proven effective, expanding the system to urban roads holds the potential to prevent even more accidents; however, implementation and operation will be more challenging due to various variables, such as the diversity of road structures and the proportion of pedestrians and two-wheeled vehicles.
Ultimately, smart highways serve as an intermediate step toward a fully autonomous driving society and a means to immediately improve safety and efficiency in the real world. Although technical and institutional challenges remain, if efforts to organically connect roads, vehicles, and communication systems continue, we will be able to enjoy a safer and more convenient highway driving environment in the near future.