DENSO and Toyota Tsusho to test quantum computing analysis of IoT traffic data
18 December 2017
DENSO Corporation and Toyota Tsusho Corporation will conduct the first test using a quantum computer to process data from a traffic IoT platform. The companies will process vehicle location and travel data in real-time from about 130,000 commercial vehicles in Thailand, aiming to establish best practices for quantum computer applications in transportation. The test will collect and analyze location information from about 130,000 taxis and trucks in Thailand through cloud-based quantum computer devices developed by Canada-based D-Wave Systems Inc.
This type of technology will be essential in the connected era, when vehicles and mobility systems need to process large amounts of data in real-time. DENSO will present the concept and overviews at CES 2018.
Rather than store information using bits represented by 0s or 1s as conventional computers do, quantum computers use quantum bits, or qubits, to encode information as 0s, 1s, or both simultaneously. This superposition of states, along with the quantum effects of entanglement and quantum tunneling, enable quantum computers to consider and manipulate many combinations of bits simultaneously. D-Wave’s latest-generation system is the 2000-qubit D-Wave 2000Q quantum computer.
D-Wave systems implement a quantum annealing algorithm, which solves problems by searching for the global minimum of a function. User problems are mapped to a search for the “lowest point in a vast landscape,” which corresponds to the best possible outcome.
DENSO and Toyota Tsusho will also implement quantum computer-based data analysis and processing technologies from TSquare, a traffic information service application from Toyota Tsusho group company Toyota Tsusho Nexty Electronics (Thailand) Co., Ltd.
The TSquare Traffic Information service in Bangkok and suburbs, launched in July 2012, collects GPS data from systems installed in 10,000 taxis and 5,000 trucks to create real time traffic info for big cities in Thailand. The company plans to launch a new version of TSquare which will provide nationwide traffic information and hopes to expand its market in the region.
DENSO will create an algorithm to process and analyze quantum computer-based data, and Toyota Tsusho will integrate the algorithm into a new application on TSquare’s platform. Findings will help guide application development to make transportation more efficient, from traffic decongestion to route optimization for emergency vehicles.
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