Toyota Motor Corp is aiming to bring to market cars that can autonomously change lanes, merge with traffic, and overtake other vehicles on highways by around 2020 as it aims to catch up in the nascent field of self-driving cars.
The technology, named ‘Highway Teammate,’ is a modified Lexus GS with the ability to evaluate traffic conditions through 3D sensors and GPS technology, enabling automated driving from entrance to exit of highways.
Demonstrating its newest safety technology features to media on Tuesday (October 6), Japan’s biggest automaker said that in the future, drivers would be able to turn on and off the auto-pilot mode with a single switch.
“Almost everything that a driver is meant to do on a highway, will be accomplished by automated driving,” said Moritaka Yoshida, Senior Managing Officer of Toyota Motor Corp.
“There are times when the car will watch over the driver, and other times when the car will help the driver out. Our concept is about partnership between driver and car, where both parties understand each other,” he said.
Toyota also said it would launch three models in Japan this year equipped with “intelligent transportation system” (ITS) technology, which allows vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication to alert drivers to potential dangers using sensor technology.
The face-lifted Crown sedan unveiled in the domestic market last week was the world’s first car to use ITS technology, Toyota said. The fourth-generation Prius hybrid, due for launch in Japan at year-end, will be among the three models, it said.
“We want to decrease road accidents, deaths and injuries caused by accidents, and lessen traffic congestion common on capital expressways. Also, we want to provide freer transportation means for all people including the elderly and the disabled,” Yoshida said.
According to the Traffic Bureau and National Police Agency, there were more than 4,000 cases of traffic accident fatalities in Japan last year. The government aims to decrease this number to 2,500 by 2018.
Toyota plans to launch products based on Highway Teammate by 2020. (Reuters)
