Patent ID: 8600650

Claim:
A navigation device comprising: a vehicle position detection unit that detects a vehicle position; a map information storage unit that stores map information; a communication unit that communicates with an information distribution center; a travel information collection unit that collects travel information for every unit distance section, including vehicle position information at a travel start time of the unit distance section, travel time information for the unit distance section, and travel link information at the travel start time of the unit distance section; an intersection passage determination unit that determines whether the vehicle passed through an intersection based on the vehicle position and the map information; an exit link identification unit that, when the intersection passage determination unit determines that the vehicle passed through an intersection, identifies an exit link traveled after the vehicle passed through the intersection based on the vehicle position and the map information; a probe information generation unit that, when the intersection passage determination unit determines that the vehicle passed through an intersection, generates probe information linked to the travel information collected for every unit distance section included in a predetermined distance section until passage of the intersection, an entry link traveled before entering the intersection that is identified based on the travel information, and the exit link; a lane stay determination unit that determines whether the vehicle stayed in the lane traveled at the travel start time of the predetermined distance section throughout the predetermined distance section based on the travel information included in the probe information; and a transmission control unit that, the lane stay determination unit determines that the vehicle stayed in the traveling lane throughout the predetermined distance section, executes a control so as to transmit the probe information generated by the probe information generation unit to the information distribution center through the communication unit.