The Toyota Motor Corporation has announced their next-generation advanced driving support system, Automated Highway Driving Assist (AHDA), which is made up of two new automated driving technologies:
Cooperative-adaptive Cruise Control
In contrast to standard radar cruise control (which uses millimeter-wave radar to detect other vehicles), Cooperative-adaptive Cruise Control uses 700-MHz band vehicle-to-vehicle ITS communications to transmit acceleration and deceleration data of preceding vehicles so that following vehicles can adjust their speeds accordingly to better maintain inter-vehicle distance.
By reducing unnecessary acceleration and deceleration, the system improves fuel efficiency and helps reduce traffic congestion.
Lane Trace Control
Lane Trace Control, which features completely new Toyota automated driving technologies, employs high-performance cameras, millimeter-wave radar and control software to enable an optimal and smooth driving line at all speeds. The system adjusts the vehicle’s steering angle, driving torque and braking force when necessary to maintain the optimal line within the lane.
Unlike Google’s Self-Driving Vehicle project, Toyota stresses in their press release that the driver will ultimately be in control.
Toyota will exhibit AHDA next week at the 20th Intelligent Transport Systems World Congress Tokyo 2013, and will begin a test trial on the Shuto Expressway near Tokyo starting October 15th. Toyota expects to market the AHDA system in the next few years.
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