Toyota has started road tests of its Highway Teammate concept, a vehicle equipped with automated driving functions that it hopes to bring to the market in around five years’ time.
As well as demonstrating the capabilities of next generation safety technologies, the vehicle also represents Toyota’s vision of how the driver-car relationship will evolve in the age of artificial intelligence.
First trials have taken place on Tokyo’s Shuto Expressway in Japan, with a series of driving maneuvers to test automated functions. Highway Teammate is a modified Lexus GS equipped for automated motorway driving from entry to exit. Onboard systems monitor traffic conditions, make decisions and take actions such as merging onto or exiting the road, maintaining or changing lanes and keeping a set distance from other traffic.
October 14, 2015
