Photo: Toyota
Toyota wants to sell autonomous cars in the future, and the Japanese corporation has made another significant step in that direction.
The carmaker's Research Institute in Palo Alto, California, has developed a fully autonomous research vehicle that will be used to explore self-driving capabilities.
Toyota says it has been working on autonomous vehicle research since 2005, and this prototype has reached its second generation. It was unveiled during the Prius Challenge event in Sonoma, California, but the vehicle itself is a Lexus LS600hL.
The carmaker has begun patenting devices and technologies for autonomous driving since 2006, and its first concept in the field of driverless cars was revealed at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show.
At that time, the prototype exhibited at CES was the first generation of a driverless automobile from Toyota, while this is the second-gen prototype.
None of these have reached production, and we expect the Japanese automaker to build yet another generation of this vehicle before releasing the system on the market. Unlike its predecessor, the second platform for autonomous vehicles designed by Toyota is a plug-and-play solution that supports continuous updates.
Toyota plans to offer two systems based on this solution, which are temporarily named Chauffeur and Guardian. The first refers to an always-deployed full autonomous system that is SAE-classified as Level Five autonomy, and a Level four system with a geofenced and partly restricted operation.
Level five autonomy means that an automobile can operate without a driver, while level four refers to a car that is capable of driving itself most of the time, but some situations will need a driver who is ready to intervene.
Meanwhile, Guardian is an advanced driver-assistance solution that will continuously monitor the environment to help the human behind the wheel avoid accidents. The Guardian function is expected to be enabled in production vehicles ahead of the Chauffeur mode, which will come at a later date.
Toyota has also announced that nearly every model and trim level of Lexus and Toyota vehicles sold in the USA by the end of 2017 will have Automatic Emergency Braking as standard equipment, a full five years ahead of NHTSA’s 2022 targets.
Toyota says it has been working on autonomous vehicle research since 2005, and this prototype has reached its second generation. It was unveiled during the Prius Challenge event in Sonoma, California, but the vehicle itself is a Lexus LS600hL.
The carmaker has begun patenting devices and technologies for autonomous driving since 2006, and its first concept in the field of driverless cars was revealed at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show.
At that time, the prototype exhibited at CES was the first generation of a driverless automobile from Toyota, while this is the second-gen prototype.
None of these have reached production, and we expect the Japanese automaker to build yet another generation of this vehicle before releasing the system on the market. Unlike its predecessor, the second platform for autonomous vehicles designed by Toyota is a plug-and-play solution that supports continuous updates.
Toyota plans to offer two systems based on this solution, which are temporarily named Chauffeur and Guardian. The first refers to an always-deployed full autonomous system that is SAE-classified as Level Five autonomy, and a Level four system with a geofenced and partly restricted operation.
Level five autonomy means that an automobile can operate without a driver, while level four refers to a car that is capable of driving itself most of the time, but some situations will need a driver who is ready to intervene.
Meanwhile, Guardian is an advanced driver-assistance solution that will continuously monitor the environment to help the human behind the wheel avoid accidents. The Guardian function is expected to be enabled in production vehicles ahead of the Chauffeur mode, which will come at a later date.
Toyota has also announced that nearly every model and trim level of Lexus and Toyota vehicles sold in the USA by the end of 2017 will have Automatic Emergency Braking as standard equipment, a full five years ahead of NHTSA’s 2022 targets.
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