Patent ID: 8326521

Claim:
A traffic situation determination system, comprising: a vehicle; a mobile phone communication network that estimates a travel path of the vehicle based on a mobile phone location signal received from the vehicle; and an information center that communicates with a communication device of the vehicle and the mobile phone communication network; and the vehicle including: the communication device that communicates over the mobile phone communication network via a mobile phone communication signal; and a controller that: acquires a current position of the vehicle based on a radio signal received from a GPS satellite; determines the travel path of the vehicle based on the acquired position of the vehicle; determines whether a road on which the vehicle is traveling has a traffic jam; if the road on which the vehicle is traveling has a traffic jam, causes the communication device to transmit information relating to the travel path to the information center; and if the road on which the vehicle is traveling does not have a traffic jam, does not cause the communication device to transmit information relating to the travel path to the information center; wherein the mobile phone location signal is a signal received by the mobile phone communication network to determine the location of the communication device and is different from the mobile phone communication signal, which is used to communicate data over the mobile phone communication network.