Patent ID: 8914226

Claim:
A traffic information creating device comprising: a memory that stores map information including link information related to links that constitute a road; and a controller that: acquires a current location of a vehicle at unit time intervals; acquires current traffic information, which includes a distributed current traffic congestion level of each link and which is distributed from a device outside the vehicle at predetermined time intervals; each time the vehicle exits a link, sequentially stores the exited link in an exited link train on the basis of the map information; determines whether the current traffic information has been acquired; and when it is determined that the current traffic information has been acquired: determine whether the current traffic information indicates a congestion level that is different from a congestion level of traffic information that was acquired by the controller just prior the current traffic information; if the current traffic information indicates a congestion level that is the same as the congestion level of the traffic information that was acquired by the controller just prior the current traffic information, set the congestion level of the traffic information that was acquired by the controller just prior the current traffic information as the congestion level for the exited link train; and if the current traffic information indicates a congestion level that is different than the congestion level of the traffic information that was acquired by the controller just prior the current traffic information, stores in the memory, the distributed current traffic congestion level included in the received current traffic information as a traffic congestion level in association with a portion of the exited link train within a range from the current location at a received time point at which the current traffic information has been received to a location that is a predetermined distance behind the current location at the received time point in a travel direction among the exited link train.