Engineers have been working with a new prototype vehicle, a Lexus GS known as the Highway Teammate, to prepare next-generation self-driving technology for commercialization. The company will initially launch a semi-autonomous production car capable of completely controlling the vehicle on highways.
To safely handle driving duties on high-speed roads, the modified Lexus has been outfitted with a sensor suite to establish geographic position, monitor nearby vehicles, road markings and traffic conditions. Data is then used to manage the steering, brakes, throttle and signals, with the ability to autonomously merge onto highways, change lanes and maintain distances between surrounding vehicles.
The semi-autonomous Lexus has been tested on Tokyo’s Shuto Expressway to evaluate maneuvering performance in scenarios such as merging onto highways or changing lanes.
Highway self-driving is arguably a modest evolutionary step from current lane-holding and adaptive cruise control technologies, lacking the ability to truly chauffeur riders from origin to destination. Toyota’s announcement is notable in its apparent conservative time-frame, giving the company four years to make the midway jump toward full autonomy.
Analysts have disagreed over projections for broad market availability. Tesla Motors expects to have full-autonomous cars ready within three years, however the company does not have the best record of meeting CEO Elon Musk’s ambitious time targets.
Nissan has cautioned that it will not have a fully self-driving car ready by the end of the decade, but rather a vehicle with partial autonomous capabilities. Hyundai is also shooting for “highly automated” driving in 2020, however the Korean automaker does not expect fully self-driving cars to be ready until 2030.
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