Future Toyota Safety Technology Showcased

Toyota showcased several future safety technologies today during the fourth annual Toyota Advanced Safety Seminar.

Part of Toyota’s display today included its progress in developing self-driving cars and a major component in achieving that is directly tied to semi-autonomous safety systems it showed today.

“We are committed to bringing advanced active safety systems to market as quickly as possible and will make them accessible to a broad range of drivers,” Toyota chief safety technology officer secretary said today. Those include a suite of semi-autonomous technologies the company calls automated highway driving assist (AHDA), which includes adaptive cruise control, lane keeping assistance and alertness systems that can detect the drivers hands leaving the steering wheel through a touch sensor or visual distraction through an infrared camera that monitors the driver’s facial position.

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In combination, a car equipped with the latest version of AHDA could drive itself through certain stretches of road, but would require driver input in more complex situations. The system is meant to make the transition between automated and human-controlled driving smoother and uses upcoming road geometry combined with past performances by the car’s sensors to alert the driver of upcoming areas where the car won’t be able to drive itself. According to Toyota, the system is accurate enough to provide lane-specific information to the driver.

But that isn’t the only system Toyota is showing today. The company also demonstrated its new compact LIDAR system for the first time in North America. The latest system is more compact and less expensive than past roof-mounted versions and is consequently able to be mounted on board rather than on top of the car. Toyota didn’t specify how much cheaper the new system is, but the fact that it can be integrated onboard is a major step forward for Toyota in marketing self-driving cars to retail customers.

Finally, the company showcased a new head-up display that is capable of showing 3D images via the windshield. The systems will allow future Toyota vehicles to show information as if it is being projected to specific locations on  the road.

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